A Second Chance
by thewolvesarecalling
Summary: playoff of the video game series Harvest Moon Tree of Tranquility
1. Chapter 1

The blare of the boat's horn snapped me out of my daydreaming of lands far away and lives that were happy. Suddenly, almost too suddenly, I was whipped back to reality of blue skies and open seas. At last, for once in my life I felt completely on my own, no one behind me telling me where to go, what to do and how to do it. I felt in charge of myself for the first time in a long time.

"So you're heading out on your own huh, lass?" I pivoted on my right foot to see an old sea dog with short gray hair and a long blue sea coat. His head was covered in a captain's hat and his feet were submerged in fishing boots; he cradled a small tobacco pipe in his hands.

"Yep, finally on my own." I said as I turned back to look at the sea. I bent over the railing of the boat to get as close to the water as possible without actually being in it.

"I be guessing a pretty girl as yourself is heading to Waffle Island for that ranch deal thing?" I slightly blushed at his compliment.

"You'd be guessing right." The man walked up beside at the edge of the railing of the boat, he bent over as I was.

"Aye, I work on that little island. It's a nice cute island, good for ranching and all that. I can see a fine lass as yourself settling in nice there," I smiled to myself. "So what be your name, lass?" I cocked my head to face the captain. I straightened up and held out my hand to him.

"Mallory." He gave a toothy smile as he grabbed my hand as well and shook it.

"Pretty name for a pretty girl." Ok, at first his compliments were sweet, but now at this point I was starting to think pedophile.

"Thanks. And you would be?" I said as we released hands. He smiled at me very proudly.

"The name be Pascal." I looked back out to the ocean where now on the horizon the tiny island was just barely visible to my brown eyes.

"Well Pascal, I thank you for the boat ride." I said sincerely, but my voice wasn't really in it. I was too focused on the little lump in the straight line of the sea. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Pascal tip his hat to me.

"My pleasure Mallory. If you need anything, just holler." The old man strode away to the captains quarters slowly sipping at his pipe, blowing small clouds of smoke in the salty air. I continued to stare at the island; I just knew this place would mean good things for me, if for just once in my life, I knew I would be happy on this island.

My eyes were locked on that island; it was almost as I grew oblivious to everything else around me, even oblivious to the storm that was quickly creeping up on the small engine boat.

I suddenly snapped awake in an unknown little room. Sure, it was small and cozy but that didn't stop me from freaking out. I quickly hopped out of the little well made bed and walked to the room door and opened. It expanded out into a long hallway lined with doors that went into rooms that looked much like the one I had just been in moments before. I calmed a bit, since now it was obvious I was at a hotel or inn or something to that effect. I aimlessly wandered the place until I found stairs leading me downstairs to the main floor.

When I emerged from the staircase I was slowly greeted by faces I didn't know. One of them being an older stocky woman with braided pink hair. Her face was very settled in and full of wrinkles. The other was a younger woman, maybe only a bit older than I was, with short red hair in a simple but elegant evening dress.

"Dear, are you alright?" The older woman asked, she had a heavy smoker's voice. I looked at her a bit confused.

"Uh, yes I'm fine. Should I not be?" The younger woman stepped in and answered for her.

"While you were still on the boat, a big storm came and made you pass out. Pascal carried you here." Great, exactly what I needed, the pedophile holding me and thinking he's a hero. I sighed and looked at them apologetically.

"Oh, well I'm sorry I worried you both…even though I don't really know who you are…" I trailed off looking shy.

"Oh my! Forgive me; I don't know where my manners are," The younger woman chirped. "My name is Colleen, and this is my mother-in-law—"

"Yolanda." She cut Colleen off.

"Uh, hi. I'm Mallory." I smiled shyly. Yolanda looked at me very proudly.

"Welcome Mallory, I'm the culinary master round here, which is just fancy talk for a good chef." She smiled at me. I looked around my surroundings slowly, and then I looked back over at them.

"Uhm, where's 'here'?"

"That would be the Sundae Inn young miss." I turned around to see a tall wealthy looking man behind me. He looked like the kind that hated kids, or in my case, 19-year-olds, but he smiled at me heartily and genuinely. "The name's Jake, I run this place with my wife." He pointed over to Colleen, who blushed. I looked around me to see a small front desk, tables and chairs along with a kitchen and bar on the side.

"It's cute." I remarked, more to myself than anyone else. Colleen had a sudden wave of shock wipe over her petite face; I stared at her dumbfounded.

"Oh Mallory! I forgot, the mayor wanted to see you once you were awake."

"Why me?"

"You're the first to arrive on this small desolate island in years. Mayor wanted to know what made you want to come to this place, and how you like it." Yolanda filled me in. I thought about what she said for a moment.

"Uh, I just moved here. I don't even have my house yet, how am I supposed to know if I like it here?" Yolanda shrugged.

"Mayor's kind of an idiot."

"Mother!" Jake exclaimed. "Don't speak of Hamilton in such manner. He tries his best."

"And fails." Yolanda said under her breath as she looked away rolling her eyes. I chuckled silently to myself. Colleen, being the attempting peacekeeper, smiled weakly at me.

"Hamilton is our mayor. True, he is a bit of a scatterbrain—"

"Idiot." Yolanda cough-interrupted. Jake scowled at his mother.

"But he does his best since his wife passed last year." Colleen concluded. "But all that aside, he would like to see you. He should just be outside or somewhere close to the inn." She smiled at me, I grinned back.

"Ok, thanks. I'll see you all later." I waved to them all and walked out the door to Waffle Town.

When I walked outside, the warm spring air automatically bit at my pale skin. I had always had pale skin, but now looking at it, I smiled to myself, as I thought that my days of ranching would bring on a lot of sun. Suddenly from around the corner of the inn, a short plump man came jogging up to me. I guessed it was the mayor. His nose was rather large, and his hair was half gone, he was noticeably shorter than I was. The mayor smiled brightly at me.

"You're Mallory, correct? How do you feel?"

"Fine, thank you." I said politely.

"My name is Hamilton; I'm mayor of this little island. Pardon me asking, but why did you decide to come to our humble town?" I thought about it for a moment. Hmm, well let's see. I left to escape my psychotic abusive ex-boyfriend, and controlling temperamental parents. But was I going to tell some space-case mayor that? Hell no.

"Just wanted to get out on my own with a change of scenery." I told him, half telling the truth. It seemed pleasing enough to him as he smiled bright as, if not brighter than the sun.

"I see. An ambitious young person as yourself is just what this island needs. So, I'd like to officially welcome you to Waffle Island! Welcome!" We both smiled, but then he started clapping his hands together like I was a baby that just learned to poop on the toilet for the first time. It was degrading, but I suppose his heart was in the right place.

"Thank you." I said happily.

He cleared his throat and looked at me a bit seriously. "Now, on regards to your house…" I looked at him skeptically.

"What about it…?" I egged him on.

"Well, it's not quite done being built yet…" My facial expression remained un-phased but inside I had a little mini episode. I bought that damn house and land two seasons ago, and it's still not done being built? What are those carpenters doing during work hours, playing freaking ping pong? Come on! "Well, I shouldn't say that exactly. It is done being built, but the carpenters are still perfecting it. It will only take maybe two days to complete." I calmed inside a bit, but I still say they were playing ping pong or something.

"Uh, that's alright I guess. So where am I gonna stay til then? Here?" I pointed behind me to the Sundae Inn.

"Actually, I've arranged for you to stay at Souffle Farm. Souffle Farm is a family owned business here on the island that sells farming stuff, like seeds and fertilizer. The owners will let you stay there in exchange for some minor part-time work. I figure it would be good for you earning some money since you're new." Uh! I have to work!

"That sounds great." I lied flat out. It's not that I was being lazy or anything, I just didn't expect to be working on my first day at this place.

"Wonderful!" Hamilton said happily, not catching my drift that I lied. "Follow me, I'll show you Souffle Farm."

Oh goodie.


	2. Chapter 2

As we made our way to Souffle Farm, the mayor showed me different places we passed on the way. Honestly, it really was a cute little island, it felt very homey. Actually, more homey than my old home with my parents sometimes. I knew I would settle in here nicely.

We approached the farm in quick time; it was only about eight minutes away from Waffle Town. The place was mildly big, it had many open fields for crops and flowers and such, while off to the side there was a small little shack where I'm guessing the people stayed.

"Well Mallory, this place is gonna be your home for a few days. It might look a bit small but I'm sure you'll adjust fine. Why don't you go inside and introduce yourself to the owners?" The bobble-head mayor suggested perkily. I gave a tiny fake smile to him and begrudgingly wandered inside.

As soon as I walked in, I was face to face with a mid-forties man wearing a long orange coat and a beret on his head, probably to cover the gray that was seeping out from under it. On his face he wore a deep, set in plastered frown which had clearly been there for years.

"Uh, can I help you?" he said in monotone with a slight 'I'm bored' attitude.

"I'm Mallory. I'm gonna be staying here for a few days while my house is being finished." He snickered and mock laughed at me, I saw his frown go to a smile if only for a moment.

"Huh, says who kid?" I cocked an eye at his stupid attitude. I didn't deal with people who gave me attitude very well.

"Uh, the mayor?" His smile and games soon wore away and he looked at me kinda serious, although with him I didn't know if he was looking serious or just looking normal.

"Wait a minute," He said to himself as he thought. "You're that new rancher that everyone's talking about?" I looked at him surprised with one eyebrow raised.

"I'm being talked about?" I saw some light come in the old coot's eyes.

"Never mind that. You're working for me for the next few days. I'm Craig, your new boss." He looked at me from head to toe, like he was checking me out. I suddenly felt really uncomfortable. "Hm, you're skinny, and you don't look very strong. But I don't care; I'll make you build up muscle. Come on scrawny, you got jobs to do." Craig turned around to walk out the door, and now being his little puppy dog, I against my will started to follow when someone called Craig.

"Craig? What are you doing with that girl?" I turned to see a tall brown haired lady in a long purple dress. Her hair was shoulder length and she too had a deep set frown. God, was everyone here depressed?

"Oh Ruth, this is Mallory. She's the new rancher that's staying with us while her house gets done." He turned and looked at me. "This is my wife Ruth."

"Nice to meet you." I said strictly being polite. She gave a tiny smile to me, shortly before it disappeared.

"Don't you make her work too hard; she's only a kid, and a skinny one at that." Well, I felt openly insulted.

"Yeah yeah." Craig said as he walked out the door. Having no choice or say in the matter, I followed behind.

Craig's work wasn't hard, it was just majorly tiring. He made me pull weeds from all his crop fields, plant seeds, water crops and harvest the crops that were ripe. It took me till the end of the day to finish everything. I didn't want to openly admit it to myself, but I did notice how weak I was. I was able to do all the work, but maybe if I was a bit stronger I wouldn't have had so much trouble. When I was finished Craig told me to go inside and get some sleep, which I had absolutely no problem with considering I was about to collapse any second.

When I walked inside I noticed a girl about my age walking around. She had amazingly beautiful long hair that eked its way all the way down to her waist. She wore a loose white shirt and a colorful loose skirt. She reminded me of a hippie. She must have noticed me standing there because she came walking over to me.

"I'm sorry, but the store isn't open right now. Please come back tomorrow." She had a sweet gentle voice.

"Oh, I'm not a customer. I'm Mallory; I'm staying here until my house is done." She looked at me happily.

"Oh, of course. My mother told me about you. My name is Anissa, my parents own this farm." She looked at me with a less of a smile. "I hope my father isn't being too hard on you. He can seem heartless but he really does like you being here." Yeah, because I'm doing all his work.

"No worries, I'm managing just fine." I smiled. Anissa grinned happily.

"Ok, just don't let him work you too hard. He can be a bit of a pushover." Never would have guessed. She began to walk away, I called after her.

"Hey, where am I sleeping?" She pointed to a guest room right next to her. "Thanks see you in the morning." She smiled as she walked away. I wandered into the cute little room and plopped right down on the bed like an enormous brick. I fell straight asleep.

"Hey! No sleeping in slacker!" I awoke the next day to Craig yelling at me to get up and throwing pillows in my face. I looked at him with no expression as I plainly said,

"Well, I guess that beats an alarm clock."

"Hey, don't you wisecrack me or I'll make you work double time." I got to my feet and yawned loudly.

"Yeah yeah." I brushed him off.

"Kid, go see Ruth before you come outside, she fixed a small breakfast for you." I looked at him, surprised.

"You're actually feeding me?" I said with a bit of hope that he was doing something nice for me. He spoke bluntly.

"You work on an empty stomach in this heat, you'll puke," I smiled. "And I don't need that for my crops." I un-smiled.

"Thanks so much for worrying about my wellbeing." I said sarcastically. He turned and walked out of my room to the main area or their little shop.

"Eh, shut it."

The breakfast Ruth made for me was simple but nice. It was a cheese omelet with a glass of orange juice. I politely thanked her when I was done and walked outside to my wonderful boss.

"You're late. Slacker." His attitude was really starting to piss me off.

"Sorry I didn't wolf it down just so I could get out here in the blazing heat and do your damn chores! What _was_ I thinking?" I yelled at him, to my surprise he smirked.

"Heh, bout time you started sticking up for yourself. You're ok Mallory. You know, for a kid." I just stared at him, a bit lost at his sudden change in attitude. "Alright, now you've got some deliveries to make. Here," He shoved boxes of what looked to be strawberries in my hands. "Now, get going. And come back as soon as possible." He started to turn and walk away when I called to him and stopped him, suddenly angry again.

"Wait! I just moved here! I don't know where these people live!" Craig didn't even turn around to answer me, he just kept walking.

"Hmm, sucks. Just figure out a way to do it." He went back inside Souffle Farm. Damn, the guy was a real jerk sometimes. Not even knowing where to begin, I started walking toward Waffle Town.

As I made my way to the tiny town I began to see some houses outside of the actual town. I began to wonder if maybe any of these houses could be the people I was looking for. The piles of strawberries in my hands obscured my vision of my feet, so I really didn't know where I was walking or stepping. I trotted down a little hill when suddenly I tripped over something, most likely a root or even a nice ladybug out for a walk at my luck. The strawberries flew everywhere, and when I expected to smash my face into the ground, I didn't. Someone, I didn't know who, but someone caught me. I was facing the dirt so I couldn't see their face. By the feel of their arms and grip on me it was a guy.

"Hey are you ok?" They asked as I began to get myself to my feet.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I'm—" I looked at the person who caught me. I was right, it was a guy. An amazingly cute guy. "Really fine." I finished.


	3. Chapter 3

I looked at the boy who caught me when I fell; he was a little beyond cute, but only a little. He had dark blue hair peaking out everywhere from under a flaming bandana. His jeans had multiple rips in them, most likely from manual labor. He wore a leather vest over a dirt speckled plain white shirt, on his biker gloves and his open arms showed amazing muscles. I thought I was about to start drooling. He chuckled under his breath.

"I haven't seen you around before. You new?"

"Uh, yeah. I'm Mallory." He smiled at me.

"Luke." He politely raised his hand so I could shake it.

"Nice to meet you." and I was _not_ lying. We released hands when he once again chuckled.

"Likewise." He paused for a moment, seemed to look at something past me, and then looked back at me. "Looks like you need some help." I looked at him confused.

"What?" He pointed behind me to the bunches of strawberries that lay contently in the moist dirt. I looked back at Luke. "Oh, right, them…" I said quietly. Out of nowhere I suddenly hated the mayor for voluntarily making me Craig's work monkey. He grinned at me like he had heard my thoughts.

"Want help?"

"Yes please." We both walked over to the ground covered fruit and began putting them back into the boxes they came in. Luke laughed to himself suddenly as he asked,

"Why do you have so many strawberries anyway?" I sighed apathetically.

"I'm part-time working at Souffle Farm. The guy that runs that place? Total and complete jerk."

"Craig? Yeah, he's not the nicest of people. I've just learned to ignore him; he was a jerk to me too. How come your working there?" I looked over at him and paused with the strawberries for a moment. I felt like blurting out that the mayor was a stupid idiot, but I decided against that.

"The mayor voluntarily made me work there. Since I'm new and need the money." Luke chuckled. I didn't know if it was at me having no money or what the mayor did. I decided to blow past it either way. I went back to picking strawberries.

"Oh mayor…" He trailed off in his thoughts and went silent for a second. He seemed to then snap out of that little trance and continued talking to me. "How long you working there?"

"Well I'm not just working there. I'm also staying there until my house is done being built." Luke abruptly stopped picking the fruit and looked at me; I too stopped and looked at him. He had a serious face on.

"Wait, did you order a house in the Caramel Falls District?" I nodded. "That house has been done for a while. I'm a carpenter, I helped build that house. I've seen it vacant for seasons now, and been wondering who was going to move in there." We finished putting all the strawberries back in their boxes and stood up. I was angry at what I had just heard, very angry. And I would be having a seriously pissed conversation with the mayor quite soon.

On the other hand I totally take back what I said about the carpenters playing ping pong…

"Great." I said sarcastically. Luke smiled again.

"Well, since we're already out, how about I help you deliver those strawberries then I show you to the house." I grinned at the boy.

"Totally fine with me, considering that I have no idea where any of these people live."

"Well, lucky for you I've lived on this island my whole life, so I kinda know where everyone lives." He said playfully. I smiled, but then quickly frowned.

"But wait, the strawberries, they fell in the dirt. They're all dirty now." He grinned a little devilishly.

"What they don't know won't kill them." He winked at me, and I could feel my face get bright red. "Besides, they started in the ground at one point, so I don't think it's that bad." He chuckled as he turned and started walking. Smiling at him from behind, I followed.

"Ok so, who's the first person you gotta deliver to?" I looked at the first box and read the name out loud.

"Someone named Gill." Luke openly laughed and slowed his walking a bit.

"Ok, so since you're new here I'm gonna give you the rundown on some of the people here; starting with Gill." We were just barely outside the entrance of Waffle Town. We both stopped walking and stood just under the entrance gate. "Ok, Gill is Mayor Hamilton's only son, and he's the total complete opposite of the mayor."

"So he's skinny, smart, and cute?" Luke just stared at me with half a smile. "Well you said he was the opposite…" I trailed off. Luke's half smile turned into a big bright smile.

"Ok, I'll give you skinny and smart, but well. I dunno. If I was a girl I wouldn't date him." I quietly stared at him with my brows raised and a small smile on my face. Luke looked at me until it clicked in his head. "Not that I look at him like that!" He blurted out as I burst into laughter. He blushed embarrassed.

"Haha, I'll keep that in mind." his face was still bright red, but he managed a smirk.

"But uhm, on a serious note," He said as he desperately tried to change the subject. "Gill is kinda stuck up and rude. He's got that rich pretty-boy attitude. So unless you want him to insult you a lot, I suggest staying clear of him whenever possible." We started walking again and Luke brought me to the mayor's house where Gill was at the moment. I walked up and knocked on the door gently, but loud enough for whoever was inside to hear it.

Pretty-boy was an understatement. Gill was in a long-sleeve purple sweater vest and purple and green Bermuda shorts. His hair was perfectly placed, except for one that stuck up away from the rest. His hands were filled with important looking papers. He looked me up and down, and made a face like I was a disgusting bug.

"What do you want? I'm kind of busy." He said in a snobby I'm-better-than-you kind of way. I was definitely going to listen to Luke's advice and steer clear of Mr. Pretty over here.

"Uh, strawberry delivery from Souffle Farm." I said strictly business.

"Oh yes. Thank you." He took that package from me and put it on a table next to him. He looked back at me and just stared for a moment. "Hm, I don't recognize you. You must be the new rancher everyone's talking about."

"Again with people talking about me." I said under my breath.

"What was that?"

"Uh, I said my name is Mallory." He stared at me disapprovingly.

"Huh, yes. I'm Gill." Then without even the slightest warning, he abruptly shut the door right in my face. I had to move my head back so I wouldn't get hit.

"So that was rude." I said out loud to myself. I walked back down the small steps and wandered over to Luke who was laughing at the fact that Gill slammed the door in my face. I mock laughed at him.

"Haha, oh it's so funny. Just tell me where this next person is," I looked at the name on the box. "Where's Maya?" Luke had stopped laughing at me by this point.

"She's normally at the Sundae Inn. Her family runs the place." He began walking down the small dip in the road to the inn. I looked at him skeptically.

"Jake and Colleen?" I ran to catch up to him. He looked back at me surprised.

"You know them?"

"I met them when I first arrived on the island. I didn't meet anyone named Maya though."

"Well, lemme tell you about her," Luke began; we were only yards away from the inn. "She's a nice girl and all, cute personality, but—" He stopped walking and grabbed my shoulders to force me to look at him in the eyes. He had really pretty topaz eyes. "I'm going to warn you now," His expression and tone were serious but it didn't quite reach his eyes. His eyes were still playing a devious little game. "Do not eat her food. That is, unless you wanna go bulimic or in some cases suicidal."

"That bad?" He removed his hands from my shoulders and nodded. At the edge of his lips I could see a smile forcing to stay back.

"Horrible. But she thinks she's not that bad. Mallory, I'm trying to save your life." Finally his smile broke out of its cage and came shining out. "Don't eat her food. Ok?" He was chuckling now a bit. I grinned back at him.

"Got it. Don't eat Maya's food." I turned from him and was just at the entrance of the inn when he called to me one more time.

"Not even water!" I chuckled to myself and walked inside.


	4. Chapter 4

Once inside I was greeted by some familiar faces, and past those faces I saw another girl younger looking girl in a short pink dress with pretty blonde hair. She wore an apron on her dress. I guessed that she was Maya.

"Oh, Mallory, hello." I was happy to see Colleen standing in front of me, I smiled politely at her.

"Hi Colleen, I'm looking for Maya. She had an order of strawberries from Souffle Farm."

"Ah, Maya is mine and Jake's daughter. She's practicing to be a chef under Yolanda's guidance." Colleen looked around to make sure no one was close, then quietly whispered, "She's really not that good of a cook." I smiled at her sadly.

"Well, I'm not here for a meal, just for deliveries." Colleen grinned happily, then called Maya's name. Before Maya had a chance to respond, a small explosion was heard and seen from the kitchen. Both Colleen and I looked over to the small cooking area.

"Maya! I've told you a billion times, stir slowly!" I heard Yolanda scold her granddaughter. Colleen looked to the ground sadly.

"Oh Maya…" She said quietly to herself. Smoke was seeping out of the kitchen when out came Maya and Yolanda, both coughing violently. Maya looked over to her mother and I, then slowly made her way over to us.

"You called Mom?" Colleen was staring at the mess of a kitchen behind Maya's head when she answered half heartily.

"Uh, yes. The strawberries you ordered are here." Maya looked over at me expectantly.

"Uhm, hi. I'm Mallory." I'm new to the island. Uh, here are your strawberries." It was in that one solitary sentence that I realized I said "uh" too much. I mentally scolded myself.

"Uhm, I'm going to go help Yolanda fix Maya's—I mean the kitchen mess." Colleen wandered away toward the kitchen that was still engulfed in smoke. I placed the box of strawberries in Maya's hands as she sighed sadly.

"Thanks. Sorry you had to see that." I smiled at her.

"Eh, it's ok. I'm really not that great of a cook either." She smiled timidly at me; it had obviously made her feel better.

"Hey, can you do me a favor and try one of my herb cookies? It's my first time making them, would you mind trying one?" I thought back to what Luke had told me, about not eating her food. I was about to say no, when I saw her face. She had such a hopeful smile, and her eyes were pleading with me, I just couldn't let this little girl down. I mean, it was the first time she ever made them. Maybe this was that one recipe that she was good at, it was worth a shot.

"Sure." Her smile exploded into a huge grin that hurt my face just to look at. She turned and handed me a cookie.

I was _way_ wrong.

When it first hit my taste buds my first thought was that I just ate dried puke. I wanted to spit the repulsive food out of my mouth right away, but then I looked at Maya and I just couldn't do it to her. So I sucked it up and swallowed.

"Well, what'd you think?" I picked my words very carefully.

"It's not the most worst thing I've ever eaten." I tried to smile and sound hopeful, but I failed miserably. Maya's face fell.

"You hate it! I suck! I always will! I should just give up and stop trying!" She yelled. I gently put one of my hands on her shoulder to comfort her.

"Not everyone can be the best at everything. Cooking might just not be your thing. You're probably great at something else though. We can't all be perfect." I said suddenly sounding a lot older than I was.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. But I work at an inn. My mom's a great cook, my grandma's an amazing cook, and I'm supposed to follow in line." I could see small tears welling up in her small blue eyes. Everything she was saying brought back memories of my own parents and their expectations of me.

"Hey, I know what it's like to have people expecting you to accomplish great things. You try, and try, and try but it's still not good enough. That's when you have to realize that you just weren't meant to fulfill that in your life. You're not alone." She smiled at me slightly.

"Thanks." I walked to the door and put myself half out of it when I called back.

"And who knows, maybe someday you'll get that cooking stuff right." I smiled and walked out the door.

Even though I just gave Maya a little lecture on being your own person and everything, the whole time I was talking I was holding myself from cutting off my tongue. Her cookie had left a discussing aftertaste and I swear it was slowly burning a hole in my mouth. I ran straight up to Luke.

"Do you have food on you?" He chuckled.

"You ate her cooking didn't you." He didn't say it like a question, just a plain statement, which sadly it was.

"Well, she looked at me so hopefully, and I couldn't say no, and I ate it, and I wanted to rip my tongue out, and I couldn't tell her how bad it was, and, and— you're not helping by laughing!" I yelled when I saw the blue haired bandana boy cracking up.

"S-Sorry." He stuttered though his immense laughter. I grew a little irritated with him, if only for a split second.

"Look, do you have food or not? My tongue is about to jump out of my mouth." After a few minutes he regained himself and pulled out a bag of spinach from his vest pocket; he handed it to me. I took it and stared at him like he had three heads. "Who are you? Popeye?" I chuckled; suddenly back in a good mood.

"Dude, Popeye got to beat in the baddies and always got the girl in the end. I'd love to be compared to him." I popped the spinach quickly into my mouth to rid myself of the horrible taste of Maya's cooking. As I chewed I looked at the last box of strawberries. I swallowed then spoke.

"Ok, Mr. Sailorman, where's Jin?" I asked when Luke began walking. Subconsciously I followed.

"I'm guessing the clinic, that is if it's not closed." I blinked at him.

"They close the clinic? What happens if someone get's sick when it's not opened?" Luke chuckled to himself as he shrugged.

"Sucks for them." We rounded a small corner and walked a tiny bit until we stood in front of the small medical building. "That's it. Meringue Clinic." I walked toward the clinic doors when to my surprise Luke followed close behind. I looked at him before I entered.

"You're coming in too?" He smiled.

"I wanna see your reaction to this one." I frowned.

"My reaction to what?" Luke pulled open the door and pointed behind me. When I first looked, I just stared. I saw someone in a white doctor's coat, with a Japanese garment on underneath composed of colors of red and green. Their black hair was neatly tied back in a ponytail with some loose strands dangling in their face, right above their small glasses. I just stared at the person with a shocked face; Luke was loving it. I leaned closer to the boy and quietly whispered.

"Uhm, is that a boy or a girl?"

"I'm not sure myself, but I've heard people refer to—" Luke paused, racking his brain for the right words. "That person as a him. Plus I heard that Anissa had a thing for him, and I'm pretty sure she isn't a lesbian." I would have laughed if Luke hadn't sounded so serious. Jin then must have caught sight of us and came walking over.

"Hello. Can I help you two?" He sounded like a guy…kinda. I shook myself mentally.

"Strawberry delivery from Souffle Farm." Luke said to my surprise. Jin smiled.

"Ah yes. Thank you Luke." Luke handed him the strawberries when the doctor looked over to me.

"I don't recognize you. Do you feel ok?"

"Oh yes. I feel fine. I'm new, my name is Mallory."

"Well, welcome to the island Mallory." He said as he smiled and walked over to his desk. Luke and I ditched the place before the tranny had a chance to come back.


	5. Chapter 5

Luke and I ran all the way back to the entrance of Waffle Town where we both stopped to catch our breath, and control our small laugher that came bubbling out. Luke looked and smiled at me playfully once he had caught his breath.

"Man, Mallory I've never seen anyone run as fast as you did when you hightailed it outta there." I smirked and humored him.

"I've never been so scared of a person's gender in my life. I don't ever want to have to see him again, he kinda creeps me out." I shuttered a bit jokingly, and we both chuckled.

"Well that's easy. Don't get sick." I sighed.

"If only that were easy. I'm pretty much prone to getting sick, even in summer." We began walking, to nowhere in general, just walking. Luke waved off what I said like it was nothing.

"Nah, you'll be fine. Not many diseases float around here. Besides, Jin doesn't even really handle the sick patients, his grandmother Irene does. So if I were you I'd chill about him. Besides, he's not the only tranny on the island." He smiled but I just stared for a moment. I was about to open my mouth and say something when he suddenly cut me off. "But that's a talk for another time. So," he said more perkily. I was going to still ask about what he said before, but I decided to let it brush past. Hey, it gave me an excuse to see him again some time. "Wanna see your house?" I grinned.

"Definitely. But wait, I have to go back to Craig." Luke raised an eyebrow at me.

"Pssh. Your house is done. You don't have to stay there anymore. I see no reason to go back." We stopped walking and I stood silently for a moment and thought. Luke just stared at me dumbfounded.

"But…I want my money." I said in a mock little kid's voice. He openly started laughing at me. I couldn't help smile too when I saw him laughing.

"Ok, I'll show you to the house, and while you're settling in I'll go to the farm and pick up your money for you." Happily I agreed.

We walked for a while in silence to Caramel River District, and weirdly it wasn't awkward to walk in silence with Luke. I guess since we met earlier we just kinda acted like friends who had known each other for a while. He was a really easy person to just be yourself around, and I really liked that about him.

When we got to the house, it was much smaller than I expected, but I guess that's what you get when you pay for the cheapest one they have. Still, for a small cheap house it was cute looking, and looked roomy enough for one person. I looked around the yard then, and that kinda shocked me. Rocks, trees and weeds overran the field. I sunk my head only a little out of disappointment. To clean up that yard it would take quite a lot of work. Luke looked over at me happily with a big shining smile on his face, and I just couldn't help but feel a little happier. There's just something about his smile that makes me happy. I have no idea what it is.

"So? Whadda think?" He asked eagerly. I have to give him some credit, for a house he built with maybe a few other people, it was pretty good. I walked up to the house to get a better look.

"Luke, it's really awesome. I can't believe you built this." I looked back at him and for a second I thought I saw him blush. He scratched the back of his head with his hand and looked away embarrassed, but he still held a grin.

"Hah, thanks. But I mean I didn't do it all myself, I had help. It was mostly my dad who did it actually," I walked back over to Luke and he looked me in the face again, and his arm fell. "My pa is the head carpenter over at Dale's Carpentry, I'm sure you could have guessed but he's Dale." I chuckled to myself. "I'm only an apprentice. But someday I'll be just as good as my dad!" His excitement made me giggle more.

"Well, for an apprentice, the house is great."

"It comes fully furnished, so you don't have to worry about buying that much more furniture. But we sell that at the carpentry too if you need it."

"Good to know, in that case I suppose I'll be paying quite a lot of visits to the carpentry, huh?" Again, if only for a second I saw him blush. But he brushed it off and shrugged happily.

"We always love company. Now go inside and check out your house, I'll head to the farm and pick up your cash." I walked toward the front door of the house as I called back to him.

"Thank you!" I yelled as he had already started to walk away. He simply just looked back and smiled at me. By this time the sun had started to set, and it looked as if Luke was walking away into the sunset. I stared at him until I couldn't see him anymore. Subconsciously smiling to myself like an idiot I wandered inside and shut the door behind me.

It really was quite cozy inside, a small cotton bed, a few dressers and drawers, a little dining and kitchen area, a tiny TV and a small bathroom. I was actually quite tired and wanted to take a nap, but I knew that Luke would be coming back shortly so I decided against it. Instead, I took a quick shower, and put on the only clean clothes I had; my black sweats, and an old baggy Green Day shirt. I tossed my auburn hair up on top of my head and made myself a sandwich. I sat down on my bed and watched mind numbing TV until my sandwich was gone and I had accidentally fallen asleep.

When I came to from my little nap that I wasn't supposed to take, I noticed that it was quite dark out. I looked around in a tizzy for a moment, confused as to what happened and where I was. When my senses came crawling back to me I slowly got up from my bed and was going to go to the bathroom when I noticed someone sitting on a chair watching TV. Still a bit out of it, I let out a small squeak in surprise. When they turned around and looked at me I calmed. Luke looked at me from where he sat, a questioning smile plastered to his face.

"Problem?" He asked teasingly. He got up and walked over to where I was, which was now standing over the little counter in my kitchen.

"Shut up, I didn't expect to see anyone there." I was always grumpy when I wake up, and noticing who I was being kinda cold to, I tried to make the situation lighter. "How'd you get in anyway?" I said as I brewed a small pot of coffee. If one thing woke me up, it was coffee. Luke stood across from me on the other side of the counter.

"You left the door unlocked." I shot my head up to him, who was looking at me kinda deviously.

"I did?" He nodded. "Uh, that's not like me."

"Don't sweat it. No one really just walks into people's homes here. We always knock." I raised an eyebrow at him as I slowly sipped my coffee. "What? Me? I knew you were in here, and I knew you were expecting me back. So I just walked in. Even though I don't think it mattered to you since you were knocked out cold on your bed. By the way, very fashionable choice in clothes." He said sarcastically mocking me. Instead of getting annoyed like I probably would have with anyone else, I took it as a joke and teased back.

"Sorry, I didn't expect someone to just walk into my house while I was sleeping. Besides they were the only clean clothes I had." I began to pour more coffee into my now empty cup. "You want any?"

"Coffee? Nah that stuff will keep me up all night."

"Speaking of, what time is it?"

"Around eight."

"I slept for two hours? Why didn't you wake me up?" I walked over to my bed and Luke followed but sat at one of the dinner table chairs he pulled over.

"I thought about it, but I didn't want to disturb you." In a way, it was kinda sweet.

"Hey, where's the money?" Luke pulled something out of his jeans pocket to reveal 300 gold. He handed it over to me.

"In your hands." He said answering my question. "Well, I should get going. You got a full day ahead of you tomorrow, I mean, have you seen your field?" He smiled playfully.

"I glanced at it once or twice." I teased. He stood up and walked over to the door and opened it. He looked back at me once more.

"See you tomorrow Mal." He shut the door and I could hear his footsteps slowly disappearing into the oncoming night. I sat on my bed and smiled to myself, he had given me a nickname.


	6. Chapter 6

When I woke up the next day I laid in bed for a good extra two, three, twenty minutes. By the looks of my house yesterday, it would take quite a long time a lot of manual labor to get this ranch in tiptop shape. I would have to pull all those weeds, smash all those rocks and bulldoze over all those damn trees. I rolled over in my bed and sighed to myself. Begrudgingly, I pulled the covers off of me and touched my bare feet to the hardwood floor. I whipped my eyes to try and wake myself up a bit more as I stumbled over to my tiny bathroom and did my business. I came back out and put on some of my already dirty clothes; no need in putting on clean clothes when they're just going to get dirt splattered anyway. I threw my hair up in a messy pony tail just to keep all my falling hair out of my eyes. I walked over to the small toolbox that came with the house, supplied with a small starter kit of tools. I dug around for a few moments then pulled out an iron sickle. There were just way too many weeds to all pull out by hand. Half wanting to crawl back in my bed, I against my will walked outside to my fields.

For a spring day, the sun was bright and hot across my skin. The rays beat down harder than a whip across a bare back. I trudged over to my fields and began to sickle away at all the pestering weeds. But being so weak and not used to the hot sun, I not before long began to feel tired. I badly wanted to stop and go rest. But seeing as how I barely had gotten anything done, I kept pressing myself on.

I despise weeds. Despite using my sickle, I still had to pull some of the weeds out by hand, leading me to have my hands full of dirt and sore like anything. Maybe this life was just not for me; maybe Mom was right when she said that I'd never make it out here. I was skinny and quite weak, I couldn't see how I would be able to keep all this up. Trying to stay a bit more positive, I pushed the thoughts out of my head and smiled to myself. In my thoughts of self pity, I hadn't realized that I had finished picking and pulling all the weeds on my field. But my happiness was soon drawn away when I remember that there were rocks and trees that still needed to be destroyed. Once again in a bit of a depressed mood, I wandered inside my house to get my hammer to crack the rocks.

I stared at the first of one of the rocks in my line of destruction with my hammer in hand. I slowly rose up the hammer under the hot spring sun and started banging away like I was in the final match of a whack-a-mole contest.

After a couple pounds on the rock I got a hard cramp in my wrist, leading me to stop whacking for a few minutes and take a small break while I held my aching wrist. The unbearable heat made it hard to stand, and I swear I started to pant like a dog for a few moments. I really wanted to stop and go back inside my house where it was nice and cool. But I couldn't do that. I still had so much to do; I can't just walk away from an unfinished job. It's a sickness I've always had, I just can't walk away.

Feeling as if my own body was pushing me into the ground, I raised my hammer over my head to strike the rock once more. The second I put that hammer over my head though, all my bones turned to jelly, and I dropped to the dirt.

My head was light and my vision slowly began to grow dim. But before I completely lost everything, I could make out a figure running toward me, yelling my name in a familiar voice.

When I slowly began to get blood flowing to all areas of my body again, and I slowly regained my sight, I was staring up at the beautiful blue sky above my head. Gradually, all my senses came back, and it was then that I realized that someone's arms were holding me. I promptly closed my eyes and shook my head slightly before looking at the one holding me.

I turned to see Luke with a worried face.

His bright topaz eyes were incased in genuine concern, and his lips had no sign of a smile anywhere.

"Mallory?" Luke spoke softly. I attempted to speak, but just ended up groaning. His grip on me tightened ever so slightly. He was kneeling on the ground and holding me on his lap, his strong muscular arm was supporting my head like it would a baby's. For a boy as strong as he was, he had quite a gentle hold.

Oddly, or maybe not so oddly, when I was in his arms, under his towering embrace, I felt completely and extremely safe.

"Mal? Mallory can you hear me?" once again attempting to speak, I once again failed and only a small groan came out, encouraging Luke's worry. I looked at his worry struck face, he seemed so—serious. It didn't seem to suite him at all. "Hey, are you ok? Mallory, can you remember? Do you know who I am? Do you know who you are? How many fingers am I holding up?" He held up four fingers as he spat questions at me. This was more of the Luke I had gotten to know yesterday. I smiled to myself.

"I'm ok, I can remember, you're Luke, I'm Mallory, and you're holding up four fingers."

"Oh my God! No! I'm holding up fiv— oh wait, yeah, it's four. Ok you're all good." I chuckled to myself. "Man, I thought I was gonna have to take you to the clinic." I shuddered unnoticeably at the thought of the man-lady doctor. Regaining more of my voice, I spoke stronger and louder this time.

"I'm glad you didn't." Luke laughed slightly, seeming to be back to his happy go lucky self.

I attempted to sit up on Luke's lap he suddenly did something I didn't expect. He fully picked me up in his strong arms bridal style and stood up. The sudden movement caused my reflexes to kick in, and I automatically locked my arms around his neck and pulled myself in tight, leading our faces to be extremely close to one another. I blushed slightly as Luke barely seemed to notice. He gently set me down on my feet, as I let go of him to stand on my own. He still had a hand placed on my shoulder to steady me. I wobbled a bit, but I grew balanced.

"Are you sure you're ok?" Luke asked, some of the worry coming back to his voice. I was a bit shocked and dazed by how he had picked me up, and how close I had gotten to him, but I replied to him anyway.

"Uh, yeah, I'm fine. Totally fine, better than fine actually. I mean, I couldn't be finer. Why would I not be fine? Because I'm totally fine. Everything's fine, why wouldn't it be fine?" Luke chuckled.

"Cause you're rambling."

I silently blushed. It was a habit of mine to ramble when I was embarrassed. I took a deep breath and looked at the boy calmly and smiled.

"I'm ok. Really, I just overworked myself a bit too hard." He stared at me a little suspiciously. "I'm fine!" I yelled; smiling.

"Ok, ok. You're fine." He chuckled. "The reason I came over here in the first place was to bring you back to the Carpentry. I told my pops about how there's a new rancher, so he wants to meet you!" I absolutely loved how enthusiastic Luke got about simple stuff. I glanced over at my unfinished field without turning my head.

"Well, I think I could use a break from all this." I looked back at Luke.

"You fainting didn't tell you that already?" He smirked.

"Shut up, just take me back to meet your pops." I said playfully.

"Well then come on! You're gonna love my dad, he's real good with girls." He started walking ahead, and I followed, eventually walking side by side; our feet in sync.

"Uh…Luke?" It took a few seconds, but he got what I was saying.

"Oh, uh, not like that. I hope." I giggled. I liked how innocent Luke's mind was. Other guys I knew from back home had the dirtiest minds ever, it really sickened me sometimes.

"For my sake, I hope so too."

"Haha, but nah, my dad's pretty good with the chicks, since they're normally so picky when they shop." He automatically let out a tiny gasp and his eyes widened a little before retreating back to normal; he looked over at me. "Sorry." I laughed.

"Nah, it's fine. Most girls are like that. But not me. I've always been different. I'm not picky, I just know what I want, and I never settle for what I don't truly want; and that goes for anything." We were just turning the corner of the small dirt path we had been walking when the little woodshop came into view. Luke looked over at me.

"I've only known you one day, and I already know you're nothing like anyone else I've ever met before."

"…is that a bad thing?" I asked shyly. He smiled at me, and responded in a confident voice.

"Nope." He looked back ahead as I smiled to myself. We were nearly at the Carpentry; it utterly surprised me how close I lived to it. We walked the rest of the way to the building in silence, which I was comfortable with.

We strolled over to the Dale's Carpentry and walked inside.


	7. Chapter 7

When I first entered the small carpentry, the scent of wood shavings and mechanics hit me like a hard ball. The place was relatively small, but allowed adequate room for work to be done. Behind a small counter stood a very large man, with a long moustache, and his rugged long blue hair pulled back into a small ponytail. His skin looked rough, and his face looked dirty and soaked in dried sweat. Although his outer appearance looked rugged and a bit intimidating, I could tell in his small blue eyes that he was a kind man. I've always had a bit of a sixth sense about those kinds of things.

"Dad!" Luke yelled enthusiastically. The man looked over from what he was doing at his desk.

"Mhph." The man mumbled when he looked over at his son.

"Dad, this is Mallory. She's the new girl that I told you about." Luke gestured over to me, as I waved shyly at him. His rough features melted slightly as he gave me a smile.

"Welcome Mallory. I'm Dale, Luke's father. How do you like your house?" Luke and I walked over closer to Dale and stood at his desk.

"Oh, I love it. It's perfect." Dale slightly blushed.

"Aha, as long as the customer likes it, I'm satisfied. If you need anything having to do with woodwork, just come on down here. We'll fix up whatever you need and we'll do it cheap."

"Yeah, my pops is like a doctor when it comes to wood, he can fix anything!" Luke piped in happily.

"Well, thank you Mr. Dale. I appreciate it." He waved me off slightly.

"Please, just Dale. We're all people, no need for Mr. and Mrs." I simply just smiled. "Well, I have some work to go do; Luke, if you want to show her around some more, do so. But I need you back here by 5pm." Dale began to walk away to the back room where I'm guessing all the woodwork is actually done.

"Gotcha Dad." The boy turned to face me. "So, Mal, I only really got to show you Waffle Town yesterday. Want to see more of the island?"

"Pssh yeah." He giggled.

"Well, then come on!" He began to run outside excitedly when someone called his name from inside the building.

"Luke!" Surprised, Luke turned around to see who called. It was a boy, a year or two younger than me, with short blonde hair and a carpenter's outfit on. Obviously, he too worked here.

"Bo?" Luke replied.

"Dude, I need you to take my shift. I feel horrible, I'm going home sick." Luke groaned; loudly.

"Bo! Today of all days, you get sick? I was just gonna go show Mallory around!" Bo then looked at me confused.

"Who?"

"Me," I said. "I'm Mallory." He then looked at Luke, unimpressed, which for some reason mildly offended me.

"This your girlfriend or something?" Both me and Luke automatically blushed furiously.

"No!" We both yelled at the same time, which then led to a bit of an awkward silence. Finally he sighed.

"Bo, she just moved here. I was just being a good friend and showing her around." Luke said, a bit softer than he normally spoke.

"Well, the island will still be there tomorrow." Bo said matter-of-factly. Something just got to me about this kid that made me want to rip his throat out. I dunno, I was just getting that kind of vibe from him.

"Not if the world ends tomorrow, and Mallory never gets to see the island. Now won't you just feel so horrible if that happened, and this poor, innocent little girl," He grabbed my shoulder. His antics were making me giggle under my breath. "Would never get to see the island. Wouldn't that just break your heart?" Bo crossed his arms coldly.

"No." he said flat out. Luke removed his hand from my shoulder and sighed.

"Fine, I'll work your shift. But now you owe me." Luke turned to me as Bo smiled to himself. "Sorry Mal, I'm gonna have to show you around tomorrow." He looked at me sadly.

"Hey, dung-for-brains, you're not the only one on the island that knows your way around here you know. Just get someone else to show the girl around."

"The "girl" has a name you know." I said defensively. Bo waved me off.

"Yeah, yeah, Miley or whatever."

"Mallory." Both Luke and I said awkwardly at the same time.

"Whatever. Look, I'm sure Owen would do it. He's got nothing but free time since that gold rush. So why don't you just go outside, show Miley where the blacksmith's is, and let her go. Actually, you know what; I'll let you go with her. So you can explain this whole little episode to Owen." I could see that Bo was at this point getting on Luke's nerves and insulting him right in front of his face. "You know, since you wanted to show her around, maybe there'll be a nice tree you can show to her on the way to the—"

"Bo shut up." Luke interrupted, annoyed. "I'm taking your shift for you; that should be enough to make you happy. So shut your face and just go home sick, like you said you were. Even though you're not acting sick at all."

"I don't feel well." Bo said defensively. Luke began to push me toward the door as he followed.

"Yeah, well, you don't act it either." Luke slammed the door before Bo could get one more word out.

"Sorry you had to see that." Luke said quietly as he walked me to the blacksmith's. I could tell that what I had just seen was not the normal way that Luke acted.

"Nah, it's fine. Honestly, I thought it was kinda funny how you totally owned him like that." He had been walking with his head down and his hands in his pockets, but when I said that he lifted his head and a small smile came to his face. He gave a tiny huff.

"I don't normally act like that, you know. Since we just met, I don't want you to think that I act like a jerk all the time." His head sunk back down slightly.

"Hey, even the greatest people have bad sides; don't beat yourself up over it." His head stayed down, but though the little slits of hair that hung down, I could see a smile.

We walked in silence the rest of the way; the blacksmith's shop was extremely close to the carpentry though, so it wasn't silent for long. We walked up to the door as Luke pulled it open for me, we both walked inside.

We walked inside and I almost instantly felt the heat of the burning fire from behind the help desk. Like the carpentry, the blacksmith's was quite small, but obviously big enough for blacksmithing.

Luke walked up to the man at the counter; he looked to be quite old, maybe fifty, sixty years old. He had old white hair, but only on the sides of his head, and a big caterpillar moustache crawling along his upper lip. His face was stone hard, and no smile had been there in a while.

"Hey Gramps." Luke said casually. "Do you know where Owen is?" The man behind the counter paused and seemed to think for a moment.

"I think he was at the mines. But he left hours ago, so I expect him back anytime now," The man looked over at me. "Luke, it isn't polite to not introduce your friend." I walked up closer to where Luke was.

"Gramps, this is Mallory. Mallory this is my grandpa, Ramsey." Ramsey nodded his head at me acknowledging me. I smiled. "She just moved here. I wanted to show her around but Bo's being a jack—" Ramsey stared Luke down intensely. "Uh…rabbit, and is making me work his shift. So I was wondering if Owen could show her around instead." Luke's grandfather nodded approvingly.

"He loves new people; I think Owen would enjoy that very much." A clink on the door was heard from behind us.

"Owen would enjoy what very much?" A man said from behind me. I turned around to see an _extremely_ muscular man with red spiked hair. He wore a mostly all black shirt and pants, except for spots of white here and there. He, like Dale, looked rough and rugged, but his facial features told otherwise. He looked like a caring gentle guy.

"Owen!" Luke yelled happily. Owen looked at Luke with a confused smile.

"Luke!" Owen mock yelled. Luke smiled happily. It was evident that the two boys were very good friends.

"Dude, I got to ask you a favor. I have to work overtime because Bo is being a jerk and making me take his shift. I was going to show Mallory," Luke pointed over to me. "Around since she's new to the island, but I can't now. So I was wondering if you would show her around." Luke ended sounding hopeful. Owen laughed happily.

"Sure man. I don't mind." Luke sighed happily.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you." He gushed. Owen looked over at me and held out his hand so I could shake it.

"I'm Owen." I took his hand.

"So I've heard. I'm Mallory." We released hands.

"I've been told." We both smirked at each other's sarcasm.

"Owen is Luke's older cousin." Ramsey piped in.

"So that's why you guys seemed so close." Owen put an arm around Luke's shoulder.

"Yep, we're like best friends, only we're cousins." I chuckled. I liked Owen right away, both him and Luke seemed to be those types of guys that you can totally be yourself around from the very beginning. I really liked that about both of them.

"I figured you'd be cool around Owen, he's a really easy guy to open up to and be yourself around. I think you guys will get close in no time." Luke smiled happily. He was so cute and childish sometimes, I just wanted to pick him up and hug him. But, it's not like I would ever do that. That would just be awkward.

"Oh we'll get _real_ close." Owen moved closer to me and winked at me. I knew it was a joke, but I blushed beside myself anyway.

"Owen…" Luke said quietly.

"Whoa, sorry dude. Didn't know she was off limits." Luke blushed hard and quickly.

"Well, she's not off limits, I mean, she can do whatever she wants, you guys can do whatever you want, I just meant, what I meant was, that she, uh, she…" He just stopped talking while he kept doing random hand movements. "Uhm, Mallory, she…I'm just gonna go back to the carpentry now." Luke walked out in a bit of an embarrassed hurry. I couldn't help giggling at his embarrassment, it was just too cute. Owen openly laughed.

"He's a good kid, he tries. He fails sometimes, but he tries."

"So I've noticed." I said sarcastically, smiling.

"Well, alright Newbie. Looks like it's just you and me now. Do you think you're ready to see Waffle Island?"

"Oh, bring it on." Owen raised an eyebrow.

"Huh, a challenge taker eh? I like that. Alright let's go see Waffle Island, there's quite a lot to see." He began to walk out the door and I followed behind.

"And I want to see it all."


	8. Chapter 8

When we first walked out of the blacksmith's, I squinted my eyes in the brightness of the sun and walked slowly as my eyes adjusted to the light. Once I could see clearly again, I saw that right by where the blacksmith's was, there was an entrance to a cave. Having my feet walk for me, I wandered over close to the cavern opening, I barely noticed when Owen followed and stood next to me. "That's Ganache Mine. Recently there was a huge gold rush there, literally, the gold was like spilling out of the walls." I looked over at him, half surprised he was as close as he was, his voice sounded a bit distant. I looked at him skeptically.

"You sound sad about that." I pointed out. He sighed apathetically.

"No, it's a good thing I guess, all that gold. It just, well, it took the fun out of mining. The best part about digging in a cave for hours is trying to find rare stuff, but if it's all out in the open, well it makes it kinda not worth while."

"Well, maybe once all that gold is used up, then you'll be able to mine like you used to again." He side smiled at me.

"You're just a little optimist, aren't you?" He turned and began walking away.

"Actually I'm normally really pessimistic; it's your damn island that's making me so happy-go-lucky!" I called as he walked away, I ran to catch up to him. He laughed slightly as he spoke, back into his regular mood.

"Sure it is Newbie. Now, what do you want to see first? The ranch, the lake, the falls?" I rolled my eyes as he listed the places.

"Whichever's closest."

"That would be the ranch. You like animals Mallory?" I turned to face him.

"I _am_ starting a ranch. Duh, I like animals." I teased him. He pushed my shoulder lightly, but since he was so strong, that light push actually caught me off balance for a moment.

"Shut up. Well, they got a buncha animals here, almost any farm animal you could think of."

We walked pass Souffle Farm a bit of a ways when we came to a huge hill. On top of the hill were a barn, a coop and a few people. Just below the hill was a small little shack. Owen took me to the little shack to introduce me to the people who worked on Brownie Ranch. The people were nice, the couple that ran the ranch, Hanna and Cain, told me that if I ever needed help with my future animals on the farm that I should just come here. There were also two people who looked to be my age staying on the ranch. One of them, a girl, Renee seemed to be a sweet, kind girl who loved animals. The other, a boy named Gray was quite silent and reserved but also seemed to have a love for animals. After a couple of minutes we left the ranch so I could see more of the island.

I soon found out that there really wasn't that much of Waffle Island to see. It really only had the basic places and shops. But still if I wanted to live here I would have to learn my way around, and this is basically why I was taking this little tour, so I learn how to not get lost.

When Owen finished showing me around, it was around seven. The last place he had showed me was the church that overlooked Waffle Town, so we were very close to the little city. "Hey, since I just spent pretty much the whole day with you, why don't you come to the bar with me? I could buy you a drink." Owen suggest as we walked past the town entrance on our original way back to my house. I smiled brightly at him.

"That'd be awesome." We turned and walked into town.

"Hey, you're legal right?" I giggled slightly.

"Do you mean am I over 18? Yes, I'm legal."

"Ok good, we really don't have police forces in this town, but I still wouldn't want to get in trouble for feeding alcohol to a minor." We walked over to the bar and Owen opened the door for me; I liked how both Luke and Owen opened doors for girls, it makes me have hope in the male race.

We walked into the bar and took a seat at the counter. A tall pretty girl with long beautiful blonde hair came up to us. She had gorgeous emerald green eyes that hid behind the pieces of her bangs that couldn't make up into her ponytail. She wore a cute blue and black crop top that was revealing but not too revealing. She had on a brown mini shirt and little cowboy boots. She was all around absolutely stunning, and I wasn't the only one who noticed how pretty she was. I saw out of the corner of my eye that Owen was staring at her, lovingly.

"Oh, hi Owen." She said perkily. Owen snapped back to life instead of just staring at the pretty girl.

"Hey Kathy, think you can get me and my new pal a drink or two?" Kathy put her hands at her hips and stared at him with a smile.

"Oh come on Owen; one or two drinks? I know you better than that." Kathy turned over to look at me. "He comes in here almost every night and orders at least five drinks. I keep trying to tell him that he's an alcoholic, but he won't listen." We both giggled, Owen sat quite, which I found odd. "I'm Kathy, I'm the barmaid here."

"I'm Mallory, I just moved here a few days ago." Kathy's face lit up with excitement.

"Really? Welcome to the island! Hey Dad!" She turned around and yelled at a man at the register. The man was half bald but looked tough and someone you really didn't want to mess with.

"Hmm?" The man answered her.

"There's someone new to the island. Come introduce yourself." The man came walking over and gave me a smile.

"Welcome to Waffle Town. I'm Hayden; I run this bar with my daughter, whom you've already met."

"Thank you, I'm Mallory." Hayden began to walk back away to the register.

"Well, have a good night." He called. Kathy rolled her eyes slightly.

"Sorry, he's a bit of a social resolute. Now, what can I get you?" She looked at Owen first, but he seemed to look away and didn't say anything, so she turned to me. "Ok…what can I get you?"

"Just a beer is fine."

"Kay, I'll have that for you a minute." She walked away down the bar isle. I turned and looked at Owen. A small smile couldn't keep itself from creeping onto my face.

"Owen," I said, in a bit of a creepy voice. He looked over at me shyly. "You like her." I whispered, so no one else would hear. He looked back away from me then sighed heavily.

"Is it that obvious?" He whispered back.

"Mmm, kinda. Why don't you ask her out?" He looked back over at me.

"Did you not see how pretty she is?" He whisper-yelled.

"Just because she's pretty doesn't mean that she's un-dateable." He turned away once more.

"Pretty girls like her just don't go for guys like me." I was thrown off for a moment, but I quickly got back.

"Guys like you? Oh you mean nice, funny, sweet guys?" Owen side looked at me.

"She'd never go for me…" He trailed off.

"You'll never know unless you try." As soon as the words left my mouth Owen shot a look over at me, like I had just read his mind. At that same moment, Kathy came back with my beer.

"Here you are; one cold beer." She said happily as she placed it down in front of me. I took a sip before thanking her.

"Thank you." She began to walk away when to my surprise and her's, Owen called her name.

"Uh, Kathy?" She turned back around and walked back over to where we were.

"Yes?" Owen gave a glance over at me and I just gave a tiny smile.

"Uh, can I, uhm, ask you something?" I didn't know if I was seeing correctly, but I thought I started to see a smile curve around Kathy's lips.

"Sure." She answered quickly.

"Uhm, would you, uh, erm, go, uh get me a grape cocktail?" He blew it. Kathy's small smile disappeared, and she even looked a little disappointed.

"Oh, uh yeah sure." Kathy walked away quickly. Owen laid his head down on the bar counter.

"What the hell was that?" I asked. Owen groaned.

"I just get so nervous around her." He explained. I took a few more sips of my beer.

"I can see that. Well, bud, you totally blew it."

"That's not even the worst part." He couldn't see my expression, but I looked at him confused.

"Then what is?"

"I hate grape cocktails!"


	9. Chapter 9

When I woke up the next morning, I had a splitting headache. I was only half on my bed, and I was trying my hardest to remember what happened the night before. I remember that after Owen bailed out on asking Kathy out, we both got massively drunk, which in some case would explain my horrible headache. Everything after that was a little bit of a blur. Someone obviously brought me home, because the last thing I remembered seeing was the dirt path. Great, I had a bunch of work to do today and I was suffering from a hangover. That's just dandy.

I forced myself to get up out of my bed and go make myself some coffee. Never in all my life had I ever had a hangover. I mean, sure I'd been a little drunk before but I'd never had a hangover.

Once I was done my coffee, I went and took a nice long hot shower, to make myself wake up a little more. I dried myself and threw some clothes on. I went to my table and grabbed the seeds that I had bought the previous day when we passed by Souffle Farm. If I wanted to start a ranch, I would have to cough up the money to afford it. So, I figured selling crops was one of the fastest and easiest ways to make money in this town. I grabbed the seeds, my hoe and watering can and heading outside into the once again blazing sun.

Within a few measly minutes, I was sweating a storm; I hated the fact that this was only the spring sun. I don't think I'd be going outside much during the summer. I had successfully hoed all the correct places, now all I had to do was plant the seeds, water them and then I'd be done for the day.

I had planted every one of the seeds in the right place, and was almost finished watering them, when I noticed Anissa walking by. She stopped and stared at me for a few minutes, then came walking over to me, I saw out of the corner of my eye a smug grin.

"Having some trouble?" She asked sincerely sarcastic. I paused watering for a moment and looked at her.

"How do you guys do this? How do you make farming look so easy?" She giggled as she took the watering can from me and began to water the still thirsty seedlings.

"My parents both grew up on farms of their own; they'd been helping on farms ever since they were young. When they got married, they decided to have their own farm together. Then, when they had me and eventually my brother Taylor, we were expected to help out as well. So, it just comes naturally to us, since we've all been doing it since we were young." She finished watering them and handed me back the can. "You're new at it; don't be so hard on yourself." She smiled sweetly at me, I smiled back.

"Thanks Anissa." She started to be on her way, when she looked back at me.

"Not a problem, and hey, when those crops get older and are harvested, bring them down to our place. My mom would buy them for a nice amount of money." She walked off her own way as I walked back inside my house. I cleaned myself off a bit and put my tools away. It was then that a realized that I didn't really know what else to do with myself for the day. I figured that I'd go visit Luke or something, since he was kinda the only friend I had really made on the island so far, aside from Owen.

I made my way over to the carpenter's shop and walked inside. Immediately as soon as I walked inside I was knocked over by a big fluffy barking monstrosity. The dog came running full speed and jumped up, knocking me over; though I'm sure it meant no harm by the way it was barking happily and licking my face. I began to giggle and pet the dog's scruffy head affectionately.

"Boss!" I heard Luke's voice yell, and the dog got off of me and walked over to him. I was still laughing when Luke came over and knelt on the floor beside me.

"Hey, are you ok?" I looked up at him and continued to laugh, mainly because the dog started to lick my palm without Luke noticing. Thought my laughter though I spoke.

"Yeah, I'm fine." The dog stopped licking and rubbed his head against Luke's neck in a way to say he was only playing around. His face cracked a smile, and he stood up while holding out a hand to help me up. I took it and brushed myself off of dog hair.

"Sorry, he gets excited around new people." Luke scratched the back of his head, embarrassed. I grinned happily.

"No need to apologize, I'm used to dogs knocking me over. Back home we had a huge lab that would constantly pummel me over every time I walked though the door." Luke laughed slightly. "What's his name anyway?"

"Boss." Boss sat contently at Luke's side, as his hand steadily pet his pretty little head. "We normally keep him at home, but today he just wouldn't let us leave without taking him with us." I bent down in front of the dog to pet him, and he responded with a lick in the face.

"He's so cute."

"Yeah, we like him. Boss, go lay down." Luke pointed over to a little made out bed for Boss, and the dog walked over and lay down, obediently. "So, uhm, did you need something?"

"Nothing except for something to do. See, I already did all my field work today, so, now I'm kind of bored…"

"And you were hoping that I would be able to cure you of your boredness?" Luke asked. I smiled embarrassed.

"Would that be too much to ask?" I asked trying to sound cheery. Luke laughed.

"Nah, I get off in a half hour. We'll do something then. For now, just try to keep yourself entertained." He kidded.

"I'll try."

"Cool, I'll see you then." Luke smiled and walked into the back part of the room where the work was done. I sighed and looked over at Boss, who looked up at me.

"What am I gonna do for a half hour?" Boss barked slightly then laid his head back down. I chucked to myself. "Well you're helpful." I might as well not wait around here, so I walked out of the carpentry.

As soon as I walked out of the building, I heard my name called.

"Mallory!" The loudness of the yell made my head hurt a bit, from the still slightly lingering hangover. I looked to see Owen standing in front of the blacksmith's. I walked over to where he was.

"Yeah?" He put his hands together like he was about to say a prayer.

"I had an odd favor to ask you. Would you play kickball with my little sister?" I stared at him a bit confused.

"Uh sure. I can't do it for long, but sure." Owen sighed an obvious sigh of relief.

"Oh thank you!" He said as he quickly picked me up in a big bear hug. "I have a bunch of work to do and she's been bugging me all day to play with her." He said as he let me go. I chuckled.

"It's totally fine. I was looking for something to do anyway. But like I said, I can't do it for long. Only like a half hour."

"That should be long enough. Chloe!" Owen called. Out from the blacksmith's came running a little girl with short red hair and her own badly made up outfits. She tried to do her own makeup, which made her look like a young prostitute. But aside from physical appearance, she looked like a cute girl.

"Are you finally gonna play with me Owen?" Chloe asked loudly, which again made my head hurt.

"No, Chloe, this is Mallory. She's gonna play with you while I work." Chloe stomped her foot on the ground and balled her hands into fists.

"But grandpa works! You don't have to! Why can't you play with me?" Owen's face grew stern.

"Chloe. Take it or leave it." Chloe made a sound that resembled the Lockness Monster.

"Fine! I'll play with the stupid girl." She crossed her arms and looked away from both of us. Owen rolled his eyes then looked at me.

"Thanks again." Then he ran inside the blacksmith's.

So this was awkward.

I was standing here with a girl that didn't even want to play kickball with me, but she wanted to play with someone and I needed something to do. Not to mention I barely knew the girl.

"Uhm, so, how about we get started playing?" I asked trying to break the ice that was slowly suffocating me. Chloe still wouldn't look at me.

"Yeah whatever." She grabbed the ball, took a running start and hurled it my way. As soon as it came close enough for me to hit it I kicked that puppy so high we almost couldn't see it anymore. We both just stared at the ball as it sailed over the blacksmith's into the backyard of the shop. Chloe was in obvious shock. She finally looked at me, with her mouth wide open.

"Back home I played soccer for seven years straight. Hehe…" Chloe's shocked face slowly turned into one of pure amazement as a small smile crept up.

"That was freaking awesome! Owen could never do _that_!" I smiled at her. "If I get the ball can you do that again?"

"Oh I can do even more than that." She went and got the ball from behind the building and we played together for the whole half hour. I actually started to like Chloe.

Needless to say, Chloe warmed up to me too.

Eventually my clock stuck midnight, and it was time for Cinderella to stop playing kickball. Luke called my name by the entrance to the carpentry when a half hour was over. I looked back at him, smiled and gave a slight wave. I turned back to Chloe.

"Hey, Chloe, I gotta go."

"Aw! But why!" She asked though a frown.

"I have to go meet up with my friend. But tell you what, we'll play again tomorrow. Ok?" She smiled brightly.

"Really?"

"Sure." Chloe nodded at me.

"Ok." She took her ball and walked away back into the blacksmith's. I turned back around and walked over to Luke, who was smiling at me suspiciously.

"So, I'm guessing you found a way to entertain yourself?"

"More like it found me, but, yeah." He laughed.

"Well, come on. I know the perfect play to go, that almost no one on the island knows about. You ready?"

"Definitely." Luke took me by the hand and began pulling me to his magical secret place. Normally I hate when people pull me, but, this time I think I could let it slide.


	10. Chapter 10

Luke held on to my hand tightly, but not too tight. It was like a little kid pulling him mom excitedly over to the candy section of a store; Luke reminded me quite a lot of a little kid. But not enough that I couldn't see what an incredible man he became.

Throughout the day it had grown to be dark, it was about dusk right now and the sun was slowly setting behind us. After a few moments Luke stopped pulling and running with me until we both calmly walked side by side. I turned and looked over at him with a smile.

"So, are you going to tell me where we're going?"

"I can show you." He said with a devilish touch, looking over at me with a cock-eyed grin. There was just something about this boy that constantly wracked at my curiosity. He wasn't like any other guy I had ever known in my whole existence, it was like he was a new species, and I always wanted to figure him out a little more. But the more I tried, I got no where; he remained a mystery. All the guys that I had known from back home were so different from all the guys that I had met here on Waffle Island. They actually knew how to treat a lady like a lady, and not just some good looking sex toy.

"Or you can just tell me." I said ending with a hopeful smile. Luke looked over at me and laughed.

"No! I want it to be a surprise." I leaned over to him slightly.

"What if I told you I hate surprises?" He looked over at me, making our faces quite close together.

"I'd tell you too bad." I pulled away and sighed, while he held onto his little grin.

"Ugh, I hate to wait though!" I said loudly, not quite a yell, but loud enough. The boy chuckled to himself.

"Oh, come on. It's one of the few places on the island that no one else knows about." He paused talking for a moment and every ounce of happiness that was just seconds ago gleaming off his face was drained. He looked in front of where he was walking, though not looking at anything in particular. He looked to be deeply consumed in thought; either that or his mind just went totally blank.

"Luke?" I asked gently after a few moments. He snapped back to life some and looked over at me innocently with no expression.

"Huh? Oh, sorry. I was just…thinking." I knew I was really pushing our three day friendship by asking, but I wanted to get inside his mind.

"About what?" We were still walking, but walking quite slowly now; he looked over at me for a moment and opened his mouth like he was going to say something. But he then abruptly closed his mouth and looked away. I sighed in my head. "I know we haven't known each other long, but you can tell me anything. I won't judge you." I said honestly. He looked over at me with his bright beautiful topaz eyes shining in the oncoming moonlight, but kept treading along. Where ever his secret place was, it was a ways from town.

"It…it's nothing really. I don't know why I can't talk about it. I mean it's just the place where—" He stopped short again. It was then that I realized that where ever his place might be, or what it might be, it was super important to him. He could barely even talk about it. So for him to be bringing me to this place, well I felt very honored and special.

He sighed loudly. "Come on Luke, it was years ago. Why can't you talk about it still?" He said out loud talking to himself. I stayed silent; there was nothing for me to say. We continued walking for another couple of minutes when he suddenly stopped walking when we came to a patch of big bushes. As a surprise to myself, I froze in my tracks as well. I looked down to see what held me back when I got sight of Luke's strong hand still holding my smaller one inside it. I started to blush quickly; we had walked hand in hand the whole way and I hadn't even noticed.

"I can't talk about it," Luke said, interrupting my blushing. "So I'll show you instead." He let go of my hand and pushed some of the bushes away, all while looking at me like he couldn't look at whatever he was showing me. "Go inside." He said calmly. I stared at him unsurely but then walked though all the brush.

I walked into a fairytale.

I entered into a scene straight out of a _Disney_ movie. My eyes grew a bit larger to take in all the sights around me, and my breath was taken away from me. What stood before me was a magnificently gorgeous waterfall landed right above a crystal clear lake. The whole enclosure was surrounded by the greenest trees I had ever seen; the sky above me was now dark enough so that the moon could cast its perfect reflection upon the water's surface. Small dots of light flickered in the air around me; the fireflies seemed to dance to the rhythm of the crashing waves of the falls. The island was dark, nightfall had crept up behind us, and yet this place glowed in its own beauty. It was absolutely breathtaking.

As I took in the surroundings, I noticed that Luke had also walked through the gates into this fairytale land and stood beside me, just staring at the wonders before us.

"This place is amazing." I said out loud, more to myself than Luke. He gave a gentle sigh.

"Yeah, it really is." It seemed that was all he could say without hitting a nerve. The Luke, the goofy, fun loving, messing around guy, that I had gotten to know seemed to once again vanish into thin air, and be replaced with a deep thinking, emotional Luke. It was gnawing at my brain, I wanted to know why this place was so extremely important to him, but I was afraid to ask.

Without a word, Luke walked over to a ledge that protruded out over the lake and stood close to the falls. He sat down quietly; I followed and sat next to him shortly after he moved.

We sat in simple silence for minutes, until the calming silence grew a bit uncomfortable and awkward. I wanted to say something, but I didn't want to say anything at the same time.

"My mom used to bring me here all the time." Luke suddenly said. I looked over at him; his eyes looked distant as he stared into the glimmering lake filled with fireflies. "We would just lay out here for hours at a time and watch the waters." A small smile absentmindedly came to his face as he thought in his head. "We would play games, and count how many fireflies we could find. She would sometimes splash the water on me then run around when I chased her. I remember one time I fell in the lake and she came into get me, even though the water was freezing." He added a soft chuckle at the end. He wasn't looking at me, but I knew how bittersweet this made him to talk about it. "She was…amazing." He said in almost a whisper.

I could see all this in my head; a young, rambunctious little Luke running around the waterfall chasing after his mother. His face would be as bright as fireworks, smiling so brightly. He would catch up to his also smiling mother and she would lightly splash water on him, causing him to chase her more. She would run, but allow him to catch up to her, so she could hug him, and kiss him, and love him. I knew my imagery wouldn't be accurate, but I can believe it would be closely related.

I stared at Luke, who still looked distantly out at the waters. I didn't know what to say, or if I should say anything at all. I simply chose the road of silence and looked out at the lake, and distantly thought back to my own mother. She was nothing like the woman that Luke had just described. I can't remember one time when my mom laughed with me, when she would hug me, or kiss me, when she would love me…

I mentally slapped myself. I looked back over at the boy solemnly sitting next to me. His facial expression was indescribable, a saddening look of pain and misery that veiled over his normally cheery smile, that was no where to be found.

"She died when I was six." I knew it was coming, and I tried to mentally prepare myself for what I could say, but when the moment came, I didn't say anything. There was nothing to say. "Her bringing me here is all I can remember about her. I don't know what her personality was like, what she looked like. Sure, I've seen pictures, but it's not the same." He looked over at me for the first time since we entered the falls, and with a sigh began to speak once more. "Sorry, I didn't mean to dump all this on you. This place just really brings everything back to me. And I haven't been here in so long." He offered a small apologizing smile. I was going to smile back, when a sudden thought popped into my head. Instead of the smile coming out, the thought came out.

"How come you brought me here?" It sounded rude, but I knew Luke understood what I meant. He sighed and leaned back on the grass with his hands.

"I just wanted you to see the good parts of the island, and not just the crappy normal ones." He paused and wouldn't exactly look at me. I had a feeling in my gut that that wasn't the only reason he brought me here. He didn't speak for a few moments, but then looked over at me. "This place is special to me and well…" He stopped for only a second. "You're kinda becoming special to me." His cheeks grew pink, but his expression remained un-phased. A tiny smile crept on my face as my stomach began to flutter furiously with butterflies. "I mean, you're just so different from every other girl I've ever met." He glanced over with the smallest of smiles. "And I sort of like that about you."

Since I met Luke a few days ago, I knew I liked him more than just a friend, but I was unsure how much more. Now, looking at him in the moonlight in the most special place he has, I knew it was a lot more than I thought. I gave him a smile.

"I'm glad someone thinks so." He moved the slightest inch closer to me but wore a confused face.

"What do you mean?"I sighed to myself. He had just told me about his mother—an obviously touchy subject—and now I was given the offer to spill my guts. But could I? Would Luke even still like me if he knew _my_ secret?

"Uh, back home, people always told me that I would never be good enough, for anyone, anything. Yes, I come from the land of Dream Crushers. No one believed in me, and my parents—" I stopped in my tracks. I was being cautious. I didn't want him to know my secret, not yet at least. "Well, my parents were pushy and temperamental." Luke simply stared at me.

"Wow, that must have been awful. I can't imagine living in a place like that. How'd you deal with it?" Oh Luke, I wish I could tell you.

I shrugged beside myself.

"I moved here and got away." Once again, he inched closer, though if I hadn't seen him do it, I wouldn't have known he moved.

"Well, I'm happy you did." Would you really be happy if you knew the _real_ reason I moved here? I smiled simply at him. It wasn't a fake smile; it was real, only a little forced.

Luke and I lay in the grass for hours just talking and watching and listening to the waters. Time slowly crept away from us; only did I notice the time when I noticed the position of the moon in the sky.

"I should probably head home." We both got up and brushed the grass off of us. He smiled sweetly at me.

"Let me walk you home." I grinned happily at him, and we began our way back to my house.


	11. Chapter 11

It was an absolutely beautiful night. Even after we left the falls fireflies could still be seen aimlessly floating about. The walk back to my house was peaceful and quite. Luke and I didn't say one word to each other, and in some way, I think it was a bit better that way than just idle chat. It seemed like we were comfortable enough with each other to withstand the silence.

As we neared my house, I couldn't keep my mind from thinking back to my family. I had been an only child, and destined for greatness. That greatness I couldn't achieve because of certain circumstances. Those circumstances being one thing: Evan. Evan was an old boyfriend; we had dated for at least three years. He was practically my everything, that someone that I could go to for anything and I could count on him to be there for me. I loved him, I truly did. We had made plans to marry one day, and we would live out a real life happily ever after.

Evan was your average run-of-the-mill guy, aside from the fact that he was rich. I don't mean he had just a lot of money, he was _loaded._ Though I was accused of dating him for his money quite often, it was never true, no matter how many times people said I was lying. When we first started dating I didn't even know about his wealth. I loved him for him, and that was all there was to it. But, the day that Evan met my parents, things changed. I mean _changed._ My life was altered forever.

Throughout all my hardcore thinking, I never for a second forgot that Luke was standing straight beside me, only a few steps away from my mind, where all my terrible secrets are exposed.

I tried to make the thought vanish several times, but it simply kept lagging in the back of my mind like a lost little ghost. There was no denying it; Luke reminded me of Evan. That is, without all the money, and big houses and cars. Luke seemed to be that type of guy that I could go to about anything and he would back me up. It felt like he was that sort of person who you could count on to be there for you. He reminded me of Evan so much, it scared me a bit. But in all reality, Luke was nothing like Evan; or at least I prayed to God he wasn't.

My house was now in eyesight, though for some reason id didn't want to go home. I didn't know where I wanted to go, but I just knew that I didn't want to go to that tiny little house and be all alone. I wanted to be with someone, and if I could choose who, it would definitely be Luke.

Luke's deep, emotional side had once again dispersed and slipped away into the night without a sound, leaving me with the goofy, silly Luke that I liked best.

My front step was now only inches away from my feet when we both stopped walking and just looked at each other. He smiled at me blushing, and I stood happily in front of him; sure it was a tinsy bit awkward, but sometimes life is awkward.

"Well, uh, I guess I should let you go now." He said scratching the back of his neck, looking away embarrassed. I smiled quietly at him; he was just too cute when he was embarrassed.

"Uhm, yeah I guess so." Suddenly I felt butterflies storm around my stomach, which was odd for me because I normally don't get nervous. But this time, right now, I was growing very nervous, and I wasn't sure why. But these butterflies are not the nervous you get that just give you the funny feeling deep in your stomach, no. These kinds of butterflies make you so nervous that it actually hurts.

I looked back at Luke to notice that his hand was cradled over his own stomach and gently rubbing it. For some strange reason, it calmed me a little to see that he too was nervous. Well, either that or he had a bad stomachache. I was betting on the nervousness though.

"Are you ok?" I asked, he looked at me confused.

"Huh?"

"You're rubbing your stomach." He looked down and immediately pulled his hand away, like he didn't even know he was doing it. I giggled at him slightly.

"Uh, yeah I'm fine, thanks." He looked around anxiously, like he was scanning the surrounding area or something before he looked back to me. "Well, I better be going." It was at this very moment that my butterflies storming around in my stomach went haywire. This was normally the time when the boy leans in and kisses the girl. It's not that I was nervous about being kissed, I had been kissed before. It was just a kiss from Luke that was making me anxious.

"Yeah me too." I was expecting for Luke to kiss me, but instead the boy surprised the living crap out of me.

"Well goodnight." He began walking away. Just like that. No kiss, not even a hug. I stood at my doorstep like an idiot for a few seconds before turning and seeing Luke walk off. Shocked and a bit disappointed, I turned and walked into my house. Just like that I had been let down again, I allowed my hopes to get too high and plummet back down to earth to just be smashed into the ground. When I got inside I didn't feel like doing anything else, whatsoever. I sat on my bed in the dark for a few minutes; I didn't want to turn on the lights. I wanted to stay hidden in the dark and pretend like I didn't exist.

I hated feeling bad for myself, but for some reason this time I couldn't help it. With all that happened tonight, Luke telling me about his mom and such, I felt like me and him got closer. But maybe I was wrong. Maybe what he meant about me turning into a special person was that I was becoming a good friend, and nothing more. That must be it; I mean I did say that all the guys here are different. I guess I'm just too used to the way guys talk at home.

I tried to push the events of the night out of my head but they just kept storming back inside. i decided that I would just lay down and go to sleep, and try to pretend that this night never happened. I was almost under the covers when I heard a sudden knock at my door. Quite surprised, I walked over and opened it.

When I opened the door, I opened my mouth to say hello, but I suddenly couldn't speak because my lips had become occupied. Luke kissed me, gently at first but then growing into a deeper, sweeter kiss. His hands had held onto my shoulders, and after a few seconds I put my hands on his forearms. The kiss didn't last long; it was only a few small moments, but to me it seemed to go on and on. Luke pulled away after a couple of seconds leaving me with a stupid idiot-like smile. His hands dropped back down to his sides and I took my hands away as well. He smiled at me sincerely.

"Goodnight."

"Goodnight." I said a little breathless. He gave a side grin then again for the second time that night walked away from my doorstep, although this time leaving me much more happy. I stared after him as he walked away with that dumb smile still stuck on my face. Once Luke was out of my sight, I turned back into my house and shut the door.

When I first met Luke, I could tell right away he was different, but I didn't know how different he was. Now, just now, with the way he kissed me, I couldn't care less how different the boy might be. He was sweet and kind, funny and just wonderful. He was the perfect big brother type, though I didn't see him much like a brother, I saw him as a bit more.

With the lights still off as they were before, I walked over to my bed once again and laid down. I buried myself under the covers and stared out my window at the moon that was now high in the sky, casting a perfect light into my house. I smiled to myself and closed my eyes. I kept thinking about the kiss, how unexpected it was, but how romantic it was at the very same time. As I neared sleep, my mind started to aimlessly wander as it does every night before slumber overtakes me. I thought about Luke, and Evan, my family and my secret. My secret…

As comfortable with Luke I felt like I was, it seemed to be too early to tell him, that is if I tell him at all. What happened was bad, and how I dealt with it was even worse. Luke wouldn't even speak to me again if I told him too early; he would think I'm some sort of freak. But Luke's my best friend. He should know, he deserves to know, he will know. Just not right now.

"I want to tell him…so bad," I said to myself as I grew more and more tired. "I want to tell…him...that I… " Sleep invaded my thoughts, and I surrendered.


	12. Chapter 12

Several weeks passed, it could have been a month, I'm not sure, I lost track of all the days. Life had seemed to proceed on as normal, I continued to grow crops and sell them for the money that I needed. I am happy to say that I got more used to working out in the hot sun, and I didn't push my self as hard anymore. From the sum amounts of cash that I was able to raise, I had just enough to buy a barn. It was nice for that one little week to wake up every morning and see Luke right away.

Luke? Well within the month or so that had passed there was no change in our relationship. Like I said before, everything stayed normal. After the night that he kissed me, I somewhat expected for our relationship to go somewhere. But nothing had happened, and I was, as a surprise to myself, ok with that. Luke and I simply grew to be very close friends, we spent a lot of our afternoons together either talking or just doing some crazy thing that Luke had so intelligently come up with. I still had slight feelings for him, and I was almost sure that he still had feelings for me, but we never bothered with them. It was easier in a way if we just left them alone and continued to be the best friends that we are.

The sun blared brightly though my window into my room and glimmered over my sleeping body like a huge blanket. I slowly opened my eyes and yawned. I stared around my little lonely house, which with the continually passing days seemed to grow lonelier and lonelier. I slid myself out of bed and treaded over to my bathroom. I looked into the mirror and just stared at the girl inside the glass for a few moments. I looked so entirely different now. My normally pale skin was lightly tanned and the bright sun had caused freckles to appear slightly on my face and arms. My hair was lighter and longer; my bangs now somewhat fell into my eyes, causing me to push them off to the side quite a lot. It even seemed like my dark sapphire eyes morphed into something of a lighter and brighter aquamarine color. I sighed into the mirror but then suddenly smiled. The city girl had been torn out of me, and that made me happy to leave yet another thing from my past behind.

I cleaned myself up a bit before heading out to Brownie Ranch. Today was that big day that I had finally coughed up enough money to buy a cow. It was really comforting and nice to know that I was going to be blowing all my money on something that eats grass and moos for fun.

I stumbled onto the ranch only to catch sight of a blonde-haired boy brushing a goat. I smiled to myself and walked over to him.

"Hi Gray!" I said as peppy as I could, he gave a small groan. He hated happy, peppy, go-lucky people.

"What do you want Mallory?" he said in a monotone without even looking up at me, which surprised me that he knew who I was without looking up. I jokingly stood above him with my hands at my side.

"Now what did your auntie and uncle tell you about being rude to the customers?" He looked up at me from under the brim of his baseball hat.

"What do _you_ want Mallory?" He said once again, but with more of an emphasis on the "you." I chuckled at him and put my hands down from my sides.

"I wanna buy a cow." He raised an eyebrow at me.

"You have money?" I took mild offence.

"Yes! I'm not that poor!" He chuckled slightly.

"Are you sure about that?" I huffed at him.

"Yes Gray, I'm sure."

"You know you still gotta buy fodder and all that to feed it right?" I had actually momentarily forgotten about that little side part. I would have to make up a bit more money to feed my cow.

"I momentarily forget, but yes I know now."

"You're going to blow all your money on this aren't you?"

"Can you stop answering me in questions?" I yelled at him. He laughed slightly then stood up to look at me face to face.

"You only say that because you know I'm right." He began to walk away to the ranch barn, I followed behind.

"So what if you are…the cow and crops I grow will give me money again." He openly laughed. "Hey I didn't come here to be insulted. I just want a cow." He looked over at me, with his stupidly pretty brown eyes.

So why'd you come to the barn? You know they handle purchases are the store." I slightly blushed.

"Uh, well I was hoping that you would be nice and give me a cow for free." That was the fastest I've ever thought of a lie in my entire life. Alright, truth time; I didn't have a crush on Gray, we were just friends. But I thought that he was really funny and kinda cute so I just like to talk to him.

He laughed at me; once again.

"You, Mallory, are one funny girl." I was just thankful that he bought my lie, Gray could normally see right through me. His smile and laugh disappeared right before my eyes and his face went very plain. "Now what's the real reason you came to the barn?" Crap.

"Maybe I just wanted to talk to you." I said truthfully a little embarrassed. He looked at me with both eyebrows raised.

"About?"

"Cows?" I suggested. He snickered under his breath as he began to walk away.

"Just go to the store Mal." I stared after him for a moment, but then smiled to myself and walked off to the store.

I bought a cow and named him Fonzie. Why? Because I liked _Happy Days._ I was on my way back to my house with Fonzie on a rope behind me, when we passed by the carpentry. Luke was sitting on a branch in a tree outside of the building.

"Nice black and white!" He called over to me as I walked past. I smiled when I saw him, and adverted my path slightly so I walked over to him. He hopped down from the branch when I got closer. "Mal, I can't believe you had the money to buy a cow." He said as he pet Fonzie.

"Why is everyone so surprised I had the money to buy him?" Luke looked over at me innocently.

"Because you're still slightly new to ranching. Most new ranchers have to wait at least two months before they have enough for a barn, which you got within the first month. Then they have to wait at least two more weeks before they can buy a cow. It's nothing personal." I sighed and pet Fonzie on the head along with Luke.

"But now I have no money. I spent all my money on Fonzie, and I don't even have the money I need to buy him food, let alone myself." Luke chuckled slightly, I looked over at him.

"Fonzie?"

"Oh shut up." He laughed slightly then looked over at me with a smile.

"Relax Mal. Hey; I know something that would help you feed him. You know that girl that works at Brownie Ranch? Renee? She _loves_ animals, and she'd never want to see any animal go hungry. If you tell her that your having money problems and you can't give Fonzie food, she'll give you some for free." I grinned brightly in contrast with the setting sun.

"Really? Wait, how do you know?"

"Same thing happened to Kathy when she bought a horse." I smiled, but then it slowly turned into a frown once again.

"Well, that's great for Fonzie, but what am I going to do for food? I doubt Renee would give me food for free too."

"That's what you got good old Lukey here for." He pointed to himself with both of his thumbs. "Go put Fonzie in the barn and I'll treat you out at the bar." I looked at him thankfully.

"You sure? I mean you don't have to. I still have some—"

"You're right. I don't have to. But I want to. Now stop being a sour puss and just accept my offer." I side smiled.

"What would I do without you?" I said a little sarcastically.

"Starve." Luke said very matter-of-factly in a kidding way, which made me laugh.

"I'll be back in a few minutes." I called as I started to walk away to my house and barn.

"I'll be counting the seconds." He said dramatically while holding his hand over his heart. I chuckled at him and continued walking. He was just too cute sometimes.


	13. Chapter 13

I dropped Fonzie off at my barn after I gave him a thorough petting. I walked back over to the carpentry where Luke was waiting on the branch that he had been on before.

"Ready?" He asked when he saw me. He jumped down from the branch and walked over to where I was standing.

"Duh." I said in regards to his more than obvious question. He laughed slightly at me. We began our way over to town, and eventually the bar.

When we got to the bar, we didn't sit down at the counter area like we normally did. We actually got a table this time, since we were actually going to be eating, and not just drinking until we couldn't see anymore. In the month that passed Luke and I had come here quite a lot, and gotten plenty drunk. Honestly I'm surprised we weren't married on account of how drunk we got some nights.

When we first sat down, Kathy came over and took our orders. Since the bar was relatively small and not a very busy place, food didn't take long to cook here.

"I feel so bad, you paying for me and all." He waved me off.

"Please, don't. I've got plenty money." In that one sentence, Evan flashed right before my eyes. He used to pay for my meals all the time when I was having money troubles back home too. I tried to think of something else, and get my mind off of what used to be.

"Oh, come on. You're not that rich." He looked at me with a confused smile.

"Hey, I never said I was rich. I just said I have money." Every time that he said something referencing to him having money, I thought back to Evan. It was then that I tried desperately to change the subject.

"Well, whatever. I just feel bad that you have to pay for me. But, uh anyways, let's talk about something else." I took a sip of my soda that Kathy had already brought to our table, as I saw that Luke was staring at me; puzzled.

"Mal, is everything ok?" He asked; I just kept sipping my soda. It's not that I didn't want to tell Luke, but I didn't think this was the time and place to do it. "Mal?" He said after I kept gulping down my soda. I wouldn't exactly look at him, which probably didn't help things. "Mallory you're going to pee your pants in a minute. Stop for a few seconds." I looked at him briefly before putting the drink down. I wiped my mouth with my arm, and then finally looked at him. I tried to look as innocent and clueless as possible.

"I'm fine. I was just thirsty." He was obviously not buying that by the look on his face. He raised an eyebrow at me slightly.

"Mal…" He began.

"What?" I said quickly, maybe a little bit too quickly. He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.

"There's something you're not telling me." Oh crap.

I surrendered to myself. I had to tell him something about Evan. I had to somewhat explain why I didn't want to talk about money anymore. If I didn't, then it would just seem like I was a little bit of a mental case. I sighed and again wouldn't look at Luke.

"I just, I don't want to talk about money anymore." He leaned back up against the table and put his arms on it. I only looked at him for a second because it was killing me to not know his facial expression. It almost did kill me to see that his face was slightly coated in hurt. He thought that I just didn't want to tell him. It wasn't that, it was just that it was beyond impossible for me to talk about.

"Mallory," He said to get my attention. I looked over at him. "I know there's something you're not telling me. And I'm not going to pressure you to tell me. I know that when you're comfortable enough with me, you will." That almost felt like a bullet to the chest. "So, I'll just honor your wishes and change the subject. So, uhm how's the cow?" he needed to know; something at least.

"My old boyfriend was rich. He would constantly buy me dinner when I didn't have the money to eat on my own. I just don't like to talk about it, or anything referencing it; the relationship didn't end well." That was my limit for now. He knew some, he didn't need to know it all. I looked over at him, with an apologizing face. "And I don't want you to think that I'm not comfortable telling you things. I am. Some things I'm just not comfortable talking about all together." He smiled at me, and not just an understanding smile, a real, honest-to-God smile.

"Ok. I won't push it any further." I looked over at him extremely confused.

"You won't? You're not curious at all?" He chuckled at me.

"Well sure I am. But you said it was hard for you to talk about. I'm not going to keep bothering you with questions about something that you don't wanna talk about." I sighed to myself, but smiled.

"Heh, I guess I'm still used to how people act in the city, they're a lot nosier than people around here." I stared at him for a few seconds. "Thanks Luke." He shrugged a smile.

"Not a problem. From now on, we will not mention money, or your money problems." Just at the moment, Kathy came over with our food. She set it down in front of us then looked over at me.

"You're having money problems?" Oh God.

"Uh Kathy," Luke said trying to get her attention. She ignored him.

"You could get a job here." I was paying attention now. I looked over at her with a smile.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. We need the help right now. The bar's gradually getting more and more business, and we only have three employers, me, my dad and the cook. So another barmaid to help me out would be heaven." I looked over at Luke happily, he smiled back at me.

"Go for it Mal." He encouraged. I looked back over at Kathy.

"Sweet, who do I talk to?"

"My dad. But I doubt you'll have to do much persuading. He's right over there at the cash register." She pointed with her head over at the counter.

"Thank you so much Kathy. I'll be right back!" I said as I got up and walked over to Hayden. He looked at me confused at first, like he didn't recognize me, but then something clicked in his head and he smiled at me.

"Hello Mallory. Is there something I can do for you?"

"Actually, I came over here about a job." He sighed and his shoulders slumped. He looked down and seemed sad, but then looked back up at me with a small smile.

"You're a lifesaver. It's been killing me to see Kathy overworked like she is. She would love the extra help. When's the earliest you can start?"

"Tomorrow's fine." He smiled.

"Very well," Someone passed behind Hayden, and when he noticed he called the person's name to come stand next to him. "Chase!" A boy my age walked up, or I should say a_ cute _boy my age walked up. He had shaggy blonde hair hanging in his face, and a simple white t-shirt and jeans on. Under his bangs I could see that he had amethyst purple eyes that were 'ohmigod' beautiful.

"What?" He asked, sounding annoyed.

"This is Mallory. She's going to start working here tomorrow." He looked at me with his eyebrows raised and wore a smug grin.

"Way to pick an upper class job." He said sarcastically. The smile that I had been wearing wore away, not because I was insulted but because I didn't expect his insult.

"Chase." Hayden said sharply, Chase looked at the man.

"Like it takes skill to bring food to tables." It was mean and insulting, but yet it made me giggle a little bit. Hayden put a hand on his head like he had a headache and closed his eyes.

"Just introduce yourself." Chase glanced at me then back at Hayden.

"I think that's already been done."

"Just do it!" Hayden snapped at him. Chase but his hands up at his sides as if cops had just told him to do so.

"I'm Chase." He put his hands back down. I grinned at him little antics.

"Mallory." I said through a small smile.

"Cool." He said quickly and a bit sarcastically. He looked over at Hayden again. "Can I go now?" Hayden finally took his hand off of his head and looked over at Chase.

"Yeah, in fact get out of my sight." Chase smiled perkily and gave Hayden the thumbs up.

"You got it boss!" He looked over at me with the tiniest tendon of a smile. "Later Newbie." I watched as Chase walked back over to the kitchen. Hayden sighed heavily.

"You sure you still want to work here?" I giggled.

"I need the money; I don't care who I have to deal with." He looked at Chase over his shoulder for a minute then turned back to look at me.

"Godspeed." I smiled.

"Thanks." I turned and walked back over to where Luke was and sat down. Kathy came walking back over when she saw that I had sat down again. They both stared at me; I looked back and forth between them then I finally smiled. "I got the job." They both smiled at me, Kathy put her hand on my shoulder.

"You just made my life 20 times easier. Thank you so much." She kidded. I laughed.

"Not a problem." Kathy's smile faded a bit.

"I just hope you can deal with Chase." Luke looked up at Kathy.

"That new kid?" Kathy nodded.

"New kid?" I asked. Kathy looked over at the kitchen to Chase as she spoke.

"He moved here like two weeks ago. He didn't know what to really do, and he was too poor to afford a house or anything so he got a job here and stayed at the inn." She back over at me. "That kid might be a sarcastic little devil, be he can cook. Like really well. He's like a mini Yolanda. And Yolanda is the best cook I've ever met." I thought back to the thought of Yolanda, the large woman that cooked at the inn. From the few meals that I had eaten at the inn, no one was lying. She was an incredible cook. "But he's a mean, cold, sarcastic little beast." From what I had seen just a few minutes ago, he didn't seem all that bad.

"He didn't seem all that bad." Kathy looked at me confused.

"You met him?"

"You're dad just introduced me to him." Someone at another table called Kathy's name; she looked over and held up her index finger to them to say that she would be there in a minute. She looked back over at me.

"Introductions can be deceiving." She walked off to the table that called her. I thought about what she said for a few minutes then suddenly looked up at Luke who was eating.

"Do you think that's true?" He looked up surprised.

"What's true?"

"Introductions can be deceiving." He wiped his mouth with a napkin and shrugged as he put another forkful of something in his mouth.

"Sometimes they can be. You just need to get to know the person I suppose." I turned and looked back over at Chase.

"Yeah, I suppose you do."


	14. Chapter 14

The next day I woke up easier than other days, I seemed to roll right out of bed. I fixed myself up as I always do before I head out, and wandered over to my barn. Fonzie was sleeping cozily on top of one of the haystacks that had been lying around. Fonzie was only a baby; he wasn't much bigger than a golden retriever. It was cheaper to buy a cow when they're younger than when they were an adult, and considering my financial issue I went for the cheaper of the two. It would take a few weeks before Fonzie was only enough to start giving me milk and whatnot, but it was better than being in debt.

I knelt down beside him and pet him softly on the head. His eyes flickered open and he looked over at me, giving me a small "moo" as if to say hello. I picked up some of the hay that he was laying on and moved it up to his mouth, for him to eat. He nibbled on my hand until it was all gone, I would have to go see Renee soon, and this hay isn't going to keep Fonzie filled for long.

I carried on my day as normal; I went and watered my crops, harvesting the ones that were ripe and ready to be sold off. Days before I had bought more seeds, so I did that as well. All while I was out doing my busy work I let Fonzie out of the barn to graze around in the fields close to my house, keeping a watchful eye on him the whole time though. I couldn't have him wandering off.

The rising sun had slowly crossed over into a setting sun, casting a beautiful shadow over the whole island. I steadily moved Fonzie back into the barn and refilled his water supply. I pet him and gave him a tiny kiss on the head before leaving and closing the barn gate behind me.

I was on my way to town when I realized that I hadn't seen or talked to Luke all day. We had never spent a day apart since I moved to the island, and that thought right there quite shocked me. We had become inseparable best friends, but I suppose that with all the excitement of my new job I had just forgotten to go see him. I'm sure he would understand though. I walked the whole way to the bar in solitude, just by myself, thinking to myself. And for an odd change, I realized that I had grown to like the silence.

I entered into the bar and Kathy was the first person to come up and greet me. Her face was like a million watt bulb that had just been lit up for Christmas. "Mallory!" She said as she walked over to me, I walked in toward the bar counter and smiled at her.

"Hi Kathy."

"You picked the _perfect_ first night to work here. This place is jumping with people!"

"Really?" I looked over at her a bit shocked, and then looked around. It was filled with people, drinking, eating, and guzzling down beers one by one.

"I know, I was shocked too." Chase called from behind the counter; Hayden who had been standing at the cash register gave him a stern look. I giggled; whether Chase was nice or not, he was really entertaining to watch. I looked back over at Kathy, who rolled her eyes at me.

"Don't bother with him. Come on, I'll show you how to wait the customers." Kathy pulled me to different parts of the bar and showed me different things that I had to do. It was all relatively simple; all I had to do was smile and asked what people wanted. I laughed ironically to myself, it seemed my whole life I had been trained to just smile and worry about what other people want. Now I was actually getting paid for it.

For my first day on the job, I thought that I was doing ok. All the people seemed nice, and even when I messed up a few times, no one got angry considering it was only my first day. The night ran smoothly, and it was almost closing time when I noticed two men near the back of the bar. On their table were at least a dozen empty beer bottles; both men began to raise their voices very high. I wasn't going to think much of it, until I saw that the men them both abruptly stood up and got very close together.

"Man I am sick of you never thinking of anyone but yourself! I wanted those damn French fries!" One of the men yelled, right into the other's face.

"Maybe I only think about myself because I was hungry and you're a cheapskate!" The other screamed right back.

"You take that back, damn it!" The other yelled. It was at this point I began to get a little worried; not for the men, but for everyone.

"Make me!"

"Oh I'll make you!" The man punched the other right in the face. Ok, it was at this point that I thought someone needed to be notified about this. I ran over to where Kathy was and grabbed her, a little panicked.

"Mallory, what's wrong?" She said sweetly with a smile.

"Uh, I have a question about how to do something. Uh yeah, what do I do when that happens?" I said pointing over at the quarreling men, now both punching each other swiftly and quickly. Kathy looked over my shoulder at the men and her smile drained right from her face.

"Oh my G-, Dad!" She yelled looking over at where Hayden was standing counting the money. Hayden looked up at Kathy, then looked over at where Kathy was pointing. He stopped what he was doing and came running right through me and Kathy to the men. She followed shortly behind her father. Now, Hayden was a big man. I mean sure he was a nice guy, but I don't think you'd like to take a punch from him.

I stood over at the counter just watching all this happen, when I noticed that Chase had also come up to the counter and leaned on it from the other side, where he had been.

"Well, there's something you don't see everyday." Chase said, I looked over at him with a mildly confused face.

"Two drunk guys fighting?" I asked.

"No, two drunk guys fighting over French fries." I giggled softly at him, though I tried to hide it. I didn't succeed very well. I looked back over to the little scene that had appeared in front of us. Hayden had now gotten between the two men, and was holding at arm length apart. Since the men where so drunk though they kept pushing and trying to fight each other. I saw one of the men wind up a punch, and in the back of my mind I hoped he wouldn't do it.

But he did it. He punched Hayden right in the jaw. Well, I knew I had a great first day when I saw that Hayden's lip started to bleed. I suddenly felt right back at home in a city bar. The two men then began to beat the living crap out of each other again. At this point, a lot of our once had customers had already left, and those who stayed where now purely staying to watch Waffle Island Smackdown: Drunk Edition.

Chase chuckled a bit; I looked over and saw a small smile on his lips.

"Damn, that guy really wanted French fries." I smiled, only to hide my small laughter. I looked back over to Hayden, who had been knocked to the ground with a bloody lip. Kathy was bent over trying to help her father. I leaned over toward Chase without moving my eyes from the scene.

"Should we go help?" He didn't move his eyes either when he waved me off.

"Nah. I think they got it. Besides, they would just yell at me anyway." I looked over at him then; for a second I couldn't look away. This boy was _very_ cute. From the angle that I was looking at him, all I could see was a profile of him, but it may have been the way the lighting was, but his amethyst eyes were glowing like purple wonders. I blinked and regained control of myself.

"Why don't they like you?" I asked a little quite, in case Kathy and Hayden had began to walk back over. He shrugged from where he was leaning over onto the counter.

"I don't know." He looked over at me. "I guess I'm just not a very likable person." He looked back away over at the scene. I kept staring at him and shook my head back and forth almost unnoticeably.

"You seem fine to me." He looked over at me again with a smug grin on his face.

"You've only known me like a day."

"You can learn more about a person in a day than you could in a whole lifetime." He smiled but looked over at me like I was a little crazy. "Or so I've heard…" I said quickly, trying to save myself; but gave a faulty rescue. He laughed at me with a smile that told me he was loving this.

"Ok, so then what have you learned about me?" He looked over at me expectantly; I looked up toward the ceiling as I thought of things.

"Well, you're like a really good cook, you just moved here, you have a bit of an attitude problem, but you're funny, and you don't have money so you're staying at the inn." He snickered slightly.

"Looks like someone did their homework."

"And I'm an A+ student." I said cheerfully giving a sarcastic thumbs up. He chuckled slightly, like he was trying to hide the fact that it made him laugh.

"Don't push your luck Newbie." He said with a straight face, but a small smile curved up at the end. Just then Kathy and Hayden came walking back over; Hayden had his hand over his lip which was still bleeding slightly. He stood in front of the counter near the cash register, leaning over on the counter. He groaned loudly then looked over at Chase.

"Chase, call the cops." Chase looked over at him like he was insane.

"The phone's right in front of you, closer to you than it is to me." Chase straightened up and stood upright.

"Just do it!" Hayden yelled, clearly not in the mood to be back talked; although Chase made a good point. The phone was directly under where Hayden was leaning on the table.

"No need to get your panties in a bunch Your Majesty." Chase said as he grabbed the phone from under the huge man.

"Chase." Hayden almost growled. Chase looked over at him, obviously not in the mood to be pushed around either.

"Oh bite me." He said as he walked back away and dialed 911. Hayden pounded the table with his fist.

"Just don't bother with him Daddy." Kathy said, holding on to Hayden's arm.

"That kid…he's a good for nothing bastard!" Hayden yelled loudly, clearly not caring if Chase heard or not. I looked over toward the kitchen where Chase actually was. I saw every part of his body freeze the second he yelled. He turned around and looked over at Hayden.

"Good for nothing? Then call the damn cops yourself." Chase walked away out the door of the bar as Hayden slammed him fist down once again.


	15. Chapter 15

I didn't know at that moment what I should do; I didn't know if I should just stay in the bar or go outside and see if Chase was ok. I kept staring at the door after Chase walked out like an idiot, what Hayden had said seemed to affect him differently then how Hayden had put him down yesterday. It seemed like it hit a nerve with him. I wanted to go out there, but then again I just met Chase. Was it really ok for someone you just met to be that concerned about you? I looked over to where Kathy and Hayden were. Kathy had gotten the phone and was on with the cops, as Hayden was putting ice on his bloody lip. Everyone in the bar had cleared out except for the two men who were still in the back rumbling around a bit. I looked back over at the door, still wondering what to do. I had heard Kathy hang up the phone and walk over to Hayden.

"They'll be here in a few minutes." She said quietly. Without even looking back over at them, my body seemed to make the decision for me. I walked over to the door and left the bar. I stood outside the entrance for a minute, scanning the area for Chase. My eyes finally spotted a blonde haired boy standing by the biggest tree in the park nearby. I wandered over slowly and stealthily. He was leaning against the huge bark and staring into the small lake that was nearby. I was hesitant and stood still for a moment before I spoke.

"Hey." I said quietly, only loud enough so he could hear me. He looked over at me briefly then glanced back over at the lake. His arms were crossed.

"What do you want?" He spoke quietly too. It sounded cold, but I let it slide past.

"Are you ok?" I said after a minute of silence. I didn't want to come off and sound like I cared too much about a guy I just met.

"Never better." He said sarcastically without looking at me. His voice was like icicles. I didn't quite know what to say, so I just stared into the lake like he was. The lake looked like a glimmering portal into a different world, the moon and stars reflected off of the water's surface so magically. I loved that about this town; you could always see the stars so clearly.

I didn't speak for a few minutes, and just stared at the lake, but not really staring. I was thinking. Different things swirled around my head, too many different things that I began to get a small headache.

"What are you doing out here?" Chase asked when I stayed silent; his voice was warmer this time, like he was just asking an honest question. He was looking over at me, his arms still crossed and his back still to the bark. I looked over at him; his eyes aglow in the moonlight.

"I didn't want to be there when the cops showed up." His eyes stayed locked on me.

"You'll still have to give your say on what happened."

"Then they can come find me." I said with almost no emotion in my voice. He looked back over at the lake. My eyes drifted off of him, but not back to the water. They just simply wandered around the surrounding area. I loved this island's geography. Everything seemed to look enchanted at night; the waters would glow with life, and the fireflies would dance around the blackened forests, making it look like tiny fires where lit inside the woods. The sky always burned a dark sapphire color as it was sprinkled with dots of burning light. The grass and leaves where pure emerald, concealing a dark rich brown soil beneath. Small animals could always be seen scurrying about, though stopping to take drinks from the lakes or nibble on leaves. Once sun set and the moon rose, this island turned into an enchantment.

"Don't ask." Chase suddenly said, catching me off guard. I imagined he was referring to the scene that had just taken place between him and Hayden, and why he had been so upset. But just in case it wasn't what he was talking about, I decided to play it safe.

"About?" I asked slowly, trying to sound as confused and innocent as possible.

"You know." He said with a glance over at me. "I know that's why you're out here." I sighed to myself and took a small step closer to him.

"You just, seemed so…hurt." He gritted his teeth.

"Yeah, it struck a nerve." He looked over at me with a confused face. "Why do you care?" His words were daggers wrapped in ice. I was taken back a little bit; I didn't know what to say or how to answer his question. I honestly didn't know why I cared so much, why I even came out here to see if he was ok. I couldn't answer that question.

"I don't know." I answered truthfully. He looked over at me like I had just told the biggest lie on the planet. "I honestly don't know," I said again. "I don't know why I care. I just…do." He snickered sarcastically.

"Yeah well, don't care. I'm not worth it." He turned his back and began to walk away. I took a small step forward.

"Chase…" I said trailing off toward the end. He stopped and stood with his back to me; he turned his head with his back still to me.

"I'm better off with people not caring about me. Trust me." He walked off into the night; I stood there alone next to the lake, with my head spinning with thoughts; Chase being one of them.

For about an hour I sat there in front of the lake, just looking into the water and thinking to myself. I had seen the cop cars pull up to the bar, all the flashing lights and sirens didn't distract me from my mind. There was more to Chase than anyone, including himself was leading on. Something, something in his past made him the way he is; and I knew it wasn't exactly something good. Maybe he was a kid like me, with a story to tell but no one to tell it to. Or no one who would care to listen and understand your story…

Crickets sang their songs the loudest I've heard in a while as I thought. It was a soothing background melody, along with the gentle sounds of the lake. After a while two policemen came up to me, clearly Kathy or Hayden had told the cops who to look for.

"Are you Mallory?" One of the police officers said. I looked up to them from where I stayed seated on the grass. I nodded my head. "Can you come with us? We would like to ask you some questions about the bar fight." It wasn't like to me blow off cops, but I tended to act like I didn't hear them. I simply looked back into the water. "Miss, can you come with us?" I looked over into the direction of where Chase had walked off to, as I almost absentmindedly answered the man.

"Yes." I got up from where I was sitting and walked over with the men to the bar. Though once or twice I looked back over my shoulder at where I was just sitting, perhaps to just make sure that no one was still over there.

The next morning when I woke up I did all my normal morning things. Fixed myself up, went outside and did some of my fieldwork. Fonzie grazed happily as I did my work. Earlier that morning I had gone to Brownie Ranch and talked to Renee about Fonzie. She happily gave me some fodder to feed him, and I thanked her as I should. People passed me by as I worked on my farm, and they said the usual hello, but I was unusually quite today, from the events of the previous day. It wasn't from the bar fight, no, I was used to those from back home. It was Chase, and his words that kept me quiet and thinking. _I'm better off with people not caring about me. Trust me._ His words replayed over and over again in my head all morning. I couldn't stop thinking about why, why he would say that. It wracked my brain through and through, and I just had to know. But I also knew that I couldn't just ask him. If he was a kid like me, with an unforgettable story, it's not something he's going to just want to talk about. I felt like I was going to explode if I didn't talk to someone about this, so I figured I'd go talk to Luke.

When I got to the carpenter's Luke was outside sawing a piece of lumber off of a branch. When he noticed that I was there he looked up at me and smiled. I smiled back, noticing that it had been the first time all day that I had.

"Mal! How was you're first day?" He asked happily as he continued to saw through the branch. I walked over closer to him and smile to myself.

"It was, how should I say this, unforgettable." He paused momentarily and looked up at me with a confused smile. "Bar fight." I said point blank with a laughing smile. He laughed too then continued to work on the lumber.

"Over food?" He questioned.

"Over food." I confirmed with a smile, he chuckled. "French fries to be exact." It was within that little conversation that I realized that Luke could make me smile no matter what kind of mood I was in. It was nice to know that I had someone like that to hold on to.

"Man, some of the people in this town…they're just insane." The branch that he had been sawing cut in half, and he looked up at me with an innocent smile. "Well, aside from that, I'm sure you did great." I grinned. Luke walked over to one of his outside work tables and began to do a whole bunch of carpentry like things on it. I stayed quite for a few moments, trying to think how to bring up what I wanted to bring up. I gave up on trying to find a clever way to bring it up, so I decided that I would just come out with it.

"Luke what do you know about Chase?" He looked over at me surprised.

"The cook? Not a lot. Why?" I shrugged, trying to get away from the question.

"I dunno. But what do you know?" Luke went back to doing whatever he was doing on the table.

"He just moved here, and he's a mean kid that shouldn't be trusted." I automatically thought back to what he said last night. A little panicked for a reason even unknown to me I looked over at Luke.

"Why shouldn't he be trusted?" I said way calmer than I felt. Luke shrugged.

"I don't know. He just seems like one of those people that you just really shouldn't trust." Luke looked over at me with a suspicious face. "Why are you so interested in Chase all of a sudden?" I was mildly taken back.

"I'm not interested in him, I was just curious." I said lying straight through my teeth. "But why do you think he's un-trustable?" He looked at me smugly.

"Mal, what's going on?"

"Nothing, I just want to know." Luke sighed, and then shrugged again.

"I don't know. I guess just because he's such an ass to everyone, I wouldn't trust him."

"He's not an ass to everyone." At this point Luke looked over at me a bit annoyed.

"Ok, an ass to a lot of people."

"He's barely an ass at all. So he has a little sarcasm problem and doesn't like to be pushed around. Does that really make him an ass and deserve for everyone to hate him?" Luke put down his saw hard and quickly and looked over at me, now I could see he was a little more than annoyed.

"I never said I hated him. I just don't like him."

"Why? You barely know him!" I said louder than I wanted to.

"You barely know him too!" Luke yelled back at me.

"But at least I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt!" I said a lot louder than I had wanted it to be. Luke took a deep breathe and looked over at me with no expression.

"I don't know why you're arguing with me over this. We're two different people; we're aloud to have two different points of view. Man I don't know what's gotten into you Mallory, but I don't like it. So when whatever the hell's gotten a hold of you let's go, come talk to me. Because I don't want to be yelling at you every time we talk." Luke began to walk up the steps to the carpentry door.

"Luke wait—" I said as he shut the door. I sighed to myself; I had pushed it too far. I always do that, every time. I've always been like that, and I've always hated myself for it. I stared at the carpentry for a few minutes then began to walk back to my house, silently wishing a bullet would pierce my head.


	16. Chapter 16

I stumbled into work that night in the worst of moods possible. I said as little as possible as I could to Hayden and Kathy, and I wasn't all that sociable with the customers. When I had first gotten to the bar I noticed that Chase was back in the kitchen, cooking in his own solitude. It mildly surprised me to even see him there, considering the events of the day before. I didn't say a word to him; I hadn't even gone within speaking range of him. I also noticed that Chase wasn't talking to Hayden when given the order of what to cook. Kathy was now in this sense being the messenger girl in a feud between two sides, those being Hayden and Chase. They wouldn't even so much as look at each other, let alone talk. Though I can imagine why, they didn't exactly end things yesterday on the best foot.

The night was almost over; time had seemed to slip by excruciatingly slowly. Almost all the customers and beer heads had left by now, and the only people who were still hanging around where only there to finish up the meals that they had been eating. Not having work at the moment, I sat down at the bar counter and took a small rest. I sighed to myself and thought of Luke. I would have to go apologize to him tomorrow, I can't bear it if one of my best friends, and not to mention my only friend was mad at me and wouldn't even speak my way. I heavily sighed again and rested my head onto the counter and closed my eyes.

"What's wrong with you?" I heard a voice say. I opened my eyes and lifted my head to see Chase leaning over the other side of the counter next to me. I looked away from him for a moment and gave another small sigh.

"I'm an idiot, that's what's wrong with me." Chase gave a small chuckled, though not in the mean way. I looked back over to him; he surprised me with having a small smile on his face.

"I suppose this is where I'm supposed to ask 'why are you an idiot?'" He had warmness in his voice that shocked me; he was talking a bit quiet, but very sweetly. His beautiful purple eyes were burning aglow.

"I totally screwed things up." I said absentmindedly shaking my head.

"What, did you and Luke break up?" He asked with a confused face, sounding a bit more like his normal sarcastic self. I looked over at him a little surprised but also dumbfounded at the same time.

"No, because there was nothing to break. We weren't together." Chase gave a small shrug.

"Could've fooled the town." I looked at him a little wide eyed.

"The town?" He gave a sly smile.

"Yeah, ever since I moved here I heard people talking about this amazing fairytale couple that like everyone was envious of. Learned a few days ago that it was you and good old Lukey-boy." I was in a small state of disbelief. "But alas, there was no fairytale couple to be envious of. So now the small presents of this mediocrity can go about and rejoice in the streets and sing and dance and throw bread in the air." He said with his normal sarcasm, I rolled my eyes at him.

"I can't believe the whole town thought we were dating." I said, though I wasn't exactly talking to Chase. It was more an out loud thought that rolled through my head.

"You guys _were_ always together." Chase pointed out.

"Still no matter, I have to apologize. I can't have him mad at me." Chase looked at me with a confused face and a slightly raised eyebrow.

"What exactly did you do that was so terrible?" I shook my head back and forth absentmindedly again.

"I got under his skin when I shouldn't have. You know maybe I should go apologize tonight, if he's still awake. I mean I know he has work in the morning but I—"

"Mallory," Chase stopped me. I looked over at him. "You need to learn how to relax. You still got too much of that city girl tension build up in you, you gotta let that go. Look, Luke is mad at you, but that doesn't mean that your whole universe needs to stop moving around."

"But he can't be mad at me, I'll have no one else. He's like my only friend on the island." Chase stared at me confused, and looked at me like I was a little crazy. I stared right back at him, with a confused face, trying to figure out what he was trying to get across to me.

"But, apparently you're my friend?" I took a stab in the dark. Chase smiled at me then pat me on the arm lightly.

"There you go." He pointed his index finger at me and looked mockingly serious. "Now, tonight after work I'm gonna teach you how to relax." I stared at him with a smile, but looked at him like he was mentally insane.

"After work?" I glanced over at the clock that hung above the back wall. "Work ends at 3am." Chase put his hands out like he was shrugging. He smiled at devilish smile at me.

"Perfect time to relax." He put his hands back together. "You up for it?" I side smiled at him.

"No, but I'll be there." He smiled at me and started to walk back over at the kitchen.

"Then I will see you once shift lets up." He turned around and treaded back over to where the kitchen was. I looked over at the clock, it was only about fifteen minutes away from 3, and for some reason, that thought made me smile.

When 3 am rolled around, I said my goodbye to Hayden and Kathy. I looked around the bar and couldn't even catch a glimpse of the blonde haired boy. I looked all over but couldn't find Chase. I began to worry a bit that he had forgotten, and had gone home. I called over to Kathy to ask if she had seen him, and she said that she saw him leave already. My heart sank a bit. I sighed, and then walked out the door, with my head hanging low.

When I first walked out the door, I heard it shut behind me. I began to walk away but thought I heard footsteps. I paused in my walking for a moment and looked around. I didn't see anyone; then again it was 3am. I didn't know who in their right mind would still be out. I looked at my feet and was about to take a step forward when I felt something poke me on the side of my stomach. I yelped; the side of my stomach was a tender spot, and often led me to release a small yell. I turned around and smiled slightly when I saw Chase. He laughed at my yelp; for a guy with a sarcastic personality he had a nice soothing laugh.

"You still have way too much stress," He walked out in front of me; I took a few steps forward as well. "Lesson one in relaxing is to clear your head of everything."

"It's not exactly that easy you know." He looked over at me with a smug grin.

"That's where lesson two comes in. You need to find a nice relaxing place away from any other distractions." I looked at him with a small confused look. The only soothing relaxing place that I knew about on the island was Luke's spot at the falls, but I doubt that Chase would know about that. He walked over closer to me, very close actually, and stood in front of me. He was only slightly taller than I was, and he stared into me with his beautiful eyes. I could feel him breathing on me; I couldn't breathe myself for a moment. "Lucky for you I know the perfect place." He said in almost a whisper, as a small devious smile curved on his lips. He jerked his head over to the left and stepped back from me. I breathed. He continued to walk over in the direction that he had jerked his head in. I stayed where I stood, in shook almost. I almost found it hard to believe that Chase had gotten that close to me; I also couldn't believe how nice he was being to me, after everyone had said what a horror he is. He looked back over at me. "I can wait." I shook my head slightly, as if to knock me out of my own trance.

"Uh, no I'm coming." I said as I trotted over to where he was standing. We both started to walk, as he led me to his soothing relaxation spot.

"It's a little bit of a walk away. I hope you don't mind walking."

"Nah. I mean what else would I rather be doing at three in the morning?" He looked over and stared at me, but then smiled and laughed slightly.

We talked some of the way, but it was silent for the most part. It was a lot like with Luke, it was quite and silent, yet it wasn't awkward. The island was darker than I had ever seen it before, though at the same time it was glowing. We had been walking through a small forest when he stopped walking. I looked over at him, and saw him staring at me.

"Don't take it all in at once." He said, confusing me. He stepped through some tall grass ahead of us and grabbed my arm and pulled me through too. When he grabbed me, I started to speak.

"What do you m—" I stopped talking once I got through the grass. I looked around me, and all I could see was white soft crystal sand and a sapphire ocean that spread for miles. The moon was straight in full view above the ocean, and it line casted an almost haunting reflection over the water. Waves were gently lapping up against the shoreline. The beach was small, but it was big enough for two people who wanted to get away from the town. "Oh my God…" I breathed as I took it all in. I heard Chase snicker beside me. "This place is incredible."

"Whenever I move to a new place, I always find the most peaceful place that I can, away from people, and the city and life." Without a word Chase walked over into the beach more and sad down close to the waves. Though not so close that the waves would hit hm. He looked over at me then patted the sand next to him. "Come, sit." I walked over and sat next to him, the breeze of the ocean slapping me in the face. It felt good to feel the air against my face, it felt realistic. "See, now don't you feel more relaxed?" He asked. I looked over at him.

"I don't understand you." He looked at me confused; I stared out at the ocean as I spoke. "I mean everyone says that you're this mean, horrible, devious, nasty human being that shouldn't be trusted." I turned and looked back over at him. He shrugged like it was nothing.

"I shouldn't." I shook my head slightly.

"Why?" He sat with his knees bent and his arms were laid over his knees. He looked out at the sea, with a distant look in his eyes. He sighed.

"Because if you trust me, I'm only gonna let you down." He wasn't looking at me, but I stared at him with both of my eyebrows furrowed.

"I don't believe that."

"You should." He sighed again. "Look, I'm a screw up kid. I was a drug addict in high school; an alcohol addict in middle school." He looked over at me. "I didn't exactly have the best record with the police either. I've been a screw up all my life, and everyone who's ever trusted me I've let down, even the people that I was really close to. That's why you shouldn't trust me; because if you do you'll get hurt in some way. Happy now?" He said everything in a bit of a rush.

"Chase, take it from me. A kid who's been through crap too. You're past may have made you the person that you are, but it has no effect on the person that you'll become." My words of wisdom surprised even me. Maybe I should try applying those words to my own life sometime.

"You don't understand. I was made to be like this ever since I was born. Maybe people knew I would be like this, maybe that's why my par—" He abruptly stopped talking and looked away.

"What?" I asked, softly.

"Nothing. I can't tell you." I was about to take a huge leap off a mountaintop.

"If you tell me, then I'll tell you something about my past." He looked over at me like I was crazy. "And I won't bullshit you like saying that I had a dog named Rover or something like that." He seemed to be chewing the idea over in his head. I was mentally slapping myself in my own head. Had I gone insane? I was going to tell someone I hadn't even known a week my secret that had been gnawing at my mind for ages. But then again, this someone isn't just a someone. It's another kid who was like me, with a story; I prayed he would understand.

"How do I know you're not lying?" He asked skeptically. I sighed and looked up at the moon.

"Because I've needed to get this out in the open for a while. I couldn't tell anyone though; I didn't think they would understand. They would have thought that I was insane…" I trailed off looking the opposite way of Chase.

"How do you know that I'll understand? What if I think you're insane too?" I looked over at him and gave the smallest smile.

"I trust you." Chase sighed and rolled his eyes. But looked over at me with a small smile too.

"You're driving _me_ insane, I hope you know that." His smile disintegrated and he looked away into the sand. I heard him give a huge sigh, and he was silent for a few moments. I could see that he was mentally preparing himself to tell me.

"I'm an orphan." He said quietly but quickly. It suddenly made a whole world of sense why Hayden's remark about him being a "good for nothing bastard" struck such a hard nerve with him. He stayed silent and wouldn't look at me. I didn't know what to say.

"Chase I—"

"There's more." He cut me off. As he spoke, he paused at points, like it was hard for him to keep talking. "The family that adopted me…when I was four," He let out a small sigh, like he was trying to keep all his emotions inside still. "They…they did things…to me." He wouldn't look at me. "The woman, she, when her husband went to work…she would…come into my room." He swallowed. "She would…take off, my clothes…and…touch me." He looked down on his lap, and shook his head silently. "Then she would, take off her own. And…do things." I could barely even believe what I was hearing; Chase was molested as a child. "Eventually the husband found out. He…he didn't do anything to stop it." He looked over at me, his eyes filled with pain. "I was only a kid. I didn't know…I didn't know it was wrong." He looked away. "It happened until I was seven. That's why I turned to alcohol and drugs. I didn't know how else to escape it." I was astounded.

"Chase, I can't even begin to imagine what that must have been like. I'm so sorry." I said when I couldn't think of anything else to say.

"This is why I don't let people in. This is why I stay mean, and cold, and sarcastic. Because if you let people in, then you open yourself to vulnerability. I opened myself to those people, and I became vulnerable." He looked out at the ocean for a moment, and then looked back at me. "Alright, you're turn." I felt my stomach tie into knots; I was about to tell someone my secret, someone I barely even knew. But I couldn't turn back now; he had just told me his gruesome horrible story. So now it was my turn. I sighed and looked at him.

"Sit back and grab some popcorn; it's gonna be long."


	17. Chapter 17

I took a deep breath and looked out at the ocean; I was really going to do this. I was actually going to tell someone, after keeping it a secret for so long. I stayed quite for a few minutes, trying to prepare myself to speak of the unspeakable.

"Sometime before dawn would be nice?" Chase said, though he didn't say it meanly. It was more like a push to get me to talk. I looked over at him sadly; he attempted a small smile at me. I looked down at my lap and sighed again. "Look, uh, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to." He said. I looked over at him; oddly enough that made me feel better. It was one of the most unselfish things I'd ever heard him say. I shook my head at him.

"I need to." I took a deep breath, swallowed my excuses and began to talk. "Back home, I had a boyfriend; his name was Evan. We had dated about three years and we were nearly inseparable. He was my everything, my go-to person. I could tell him anything and he wouldn't laugh or make fun or judge me in any way, shape or form. He was everything I had always wanted; I loved him. We had planned on marrying one day," I looked over at Chase. "Obviously those plans where destroyed considering I'm here and single." I looked back away. "Evan was a normal guy aside from the one small fact that he was the son of a billionaire. He was rich, but not just rich; loaded. Their family had everything that I could ever imagine having, not to mention he always bought me the best anniversary presents." I smiled slightly, which surprised me. I resituated myself on the sand and sat Indian style and played with the sand that was in front of me. "Evan had one pretty big flaw though. He had a wild temper. When he got upset, it was almost like I was looking at a different person. I mean he would say things and do things that I know he would never normally do. It was…a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde kind of situation with him. But he stayed calm most of the time, most of the time it wasn't bad.

"We never really argued though; he and I. I can only remember two times in that three year period when he and I had had a huge fight. Though once he had calmed down he would normally come back to me and apologize and say he was sorry and that he's trying to control his temper and all that. Each time I let him off easy, and just allowed him to crawl back into my arms. Though at the time I didn't mind, we had loved each other. I supposed that's all that mattered to me at the time." I had noticed that the whole time I was speaking Chase was listening intently, and not just blowing me off and only listening to half of what I was saying. He was really listening, like he wanted to know. For some reason it made me feel good to know that he was really hearing what I was saying.

"Things changed a bit when Evan met my parents; though let me explain my parents a little first. There was no love connection between my parents and me; sure I had grown up to believe that they loved me, but they were shy of showing it. That wasn't true." I shook my head back and forth slowly as I thought. "I can't remember one time when my mother or father alike, had hugged me, or kissed me, or laughed with me, or played with me, or loved me. No, growing up I was starved of love. I couldn't even talk to them, about anything; school, friends, boys. The person that I talked to in our house growing up was my dog, because it seemed like he was the only one that even gave a damn about me. But I'm getting off topic. My parents were controlling and temperamental. Even though they didn't care about me, whatever they said I had to do or else it was a punishment for me. But it seemed that when they met Evan, I had magically done something right in my life, and they seemed to be proud of me. I can even remember my mom saying, clear as a bell 'I can't wait to see you two on your wedding day.' It made me happy that my parents were happy for me for once in my life." I looked up at Chase and met his eyes with a cold face. "Turns out they only wanted me to marry him so we would be connected with the money." I saw Chase's face droop a little, like he was disappointed. I looked back down at the sand and continued to play with it aimlessly. "I went and told Evan that. But before I go on there are some things you need to know about Evan.

"For the three years that we had been dating, he had always been trying to get sex out of me. I had told him on multiple occasions that I wasn't ready for that, and if he wanted to stay with me he would have to deal with no sex. He agreed to it, and told me that he would wait too. When I told him about what my parents intentions where, he comforted me because I was upset. He kissed me and told me that everything would be ok. But after he kissed me, he started to kiss and suck on my neck, only going lower in the process. I pushed him away multiple times…but he kept coming back. Eventually I slapped him across the face because he wouldn't stop; he punched me in the face, and I blacked out." I looked away out at the sea, I could feel water starting to rush to my eyes, but I held them back. I didn't speak for a few minutes. I put my hand over my left eye as I shut them both. Not even after a minute, I felt Chase pull my hand away from my eye, I looked up at him; he seemed to have a remorseful face on.

"Are you ok?" I nodded my head slowly.

"Yeah, just, remembering the night."

"You don't have to tell me more. In fact I don't want you to tell me more if it's going to affect you like this. I think I know where this is going anyway." I shook my head.

"You have _no_ idea where's its going. Besides, I need to say it. I'll feel better." He sighed.

"Ok." I took a deep breath as I did before and began to speak again.

"When I woke up from the blackout, we were in his bed. He was still sleeping. I lifted up the blanket and looked at myself, my body," I gritted my teeth. "I didn't have clothes on. I looked and saw that they were on the side of the bed, on the floor, along side his." I took a moment of silence then looked up at Chase. "He raped me." Chase didn't freak out, or gasp or anything. He simply just stared at me with an understanding touch in his eyes. I looked back down. "I dressed myself and left. For a week he kept trying to get in contact with me. He would call, text me, come to my house. Each time I ignored it. Eventually I got sick of him always bothering me so I just talked to him. He told me how sorry he was, and that he had been drinking earlier that day. He swore up and down and promised me at least fifty times that it would never happen again. Against my better judgment, I missed him and wanted him back. So I decided to give him a second chance and I took him back; what an asswipe move." I shook my head back in forth in disgust. "Three months later it happened again." I looked up at Chase. "Except I was awake this time. He pinned me down on his bed, and he was much stronger than me, so I couldn't fight back. Forcibly he torn off my clothes, and his own, and he continued to rape me once again." I looked at Chase square in the eye; he didn't pull his gaze off me. "I punched him. I slapped him. I bit him. I screamed for god sakes. But in his somehow twisted mind it only turned him on more, and so he raped me longer and harder." I looked away out at sea. "Eventually he fell asleep and I got out of there. This time no matter how much he tried to get in contact with me I ignored it, and told him that he would not be coming back to me this time." I gritted my teeth hard. "I told my parents about what happened. But since they're both such bitches, they told me to get over it and go back to him." I looked at Chase. "I told you they wanted the money." I started to get up from where I sat. "Through all this I got angry and depressed; and I didn't handle it well." I walked away over to the water's edge and let the water run on my feet. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Chase get up and come over to me. I stood with my arms crossed, and stared out at the ocean.

"Not to be nosy, but what do you mean you didn't handle it well?" I said slowly, like he didn't want to say anything too touchy that might upset me. I thought back to how I handled it, and grimaced. I didn't especially want to tell Chase this part, but I knew it would feel good to have someone know.

"Let's just say that I'm surprised I'm alive."

"Let's just say that I want to know more." I looked over at him, and he was staring me down, though not intimidating, just staring at me intently. I tried to think of a way to tell him lightly in my head, but nothing came. So I figured I'd just blurt it out into the open, and get it off my chest once and for all. I looked over at him.

"I jumped off a bridge." Chase's eyes widened a little, his eye brows went up and his mouth opened, though he didn't gasp.

"You…tried suicide." He said, simply saying what I hadn't. At that second, I broke down. The whole time that I had been talking to him I was fighting back my emotions, my tears. But I surrendered and began to cry, right there in front of him.

"What the hell was I supposed to do? I had been raped twice and no one gave a shit!" I yelled, though I wasn't really yelling at him; I was trying to talk over my tears. I covered my hands over my eyes and stood there crying. Only did I move when I noticed that Chase's arms had been wrapped around me. I curled into him and hugged him back, crying into his shirt.


	18. Chapter 18

"Mallory…" I heard Chase say quietly when my tears had slowly come to a stop. I was still in his arms, and I didn't want to leave. For the longest time I just wanted to be wrapped in someone's arms, and just know that the person holding me actually cared about me. "Mal." He said again. I didn't let myself out of his arms, but I looked up at him. I was giving me a small warm smile. "I give a shit." He said softly. To my own surprise, his words made me smile. Slowly he let go of me, which made me want to cry all over again. But I sucked it up and accepted the fact that I was being pulled out of his embrace. There we again silently stood side by side; I looked out at the sea. It must have been around four in the morning now, because I could see the light silhouette of the light of the sun starting to creep up from the horizon.

"It's nice to know that someone cares." I said silently, more to myself than Chase. He looked over at me for a moment then looked out at sea. He took a moment of silence, like he was thinking in his head. He was standing with his arms crossed and looking at the on coming sun.

"You didn't tell Luke…did you." He didn't say it like a question, and it wasn't. He was a plain fact that was obvious from my outburst. I looked over at him and sniffled slightly.

"He wouldn't understand." Chase looked over at me skeptically.

"How do you know that?" I crossed my arms and looked at Chase's beautiful purple eyes.

"You've been dragged through the mud in your life. And I…well I was buried in the mud. We both got out, but we still know what it was like to be in a place like that, being dragged through the dirt. Luke…he's never been through the mud. So he just wouldn't understand; if anything he would flip out." Chase looked around the surrounding area for a minute, his face slowly glowing brighter and brighter as the sun grew.

"He's mad at you now, right?" I nodded my head. "He's only going to be madder when he finds out that you told me, and not him." Crap. Chase was entirely too far beyond right. Luke had been my best friend ever since I got here and I had gotten close to him, and shared things with him about myself. But the biggest thing I kept a secret, I told an almost complete stranger.

"He's going to be devastated." I said to myself. "He's never going to want to talk to me again." Thinking of that, a tear silently rolled out of my left eye. Noticing my tear, Chase put a hand on my shoulder and looked at me in the eyes, though I was looking away toward the sand.

"Mallory?" He asked. He removed his hand when I picked up my own hand and brought it to my face to wipe the tear away. I shook my head to myself.

"He's just going to be…so mad at me."

"Hey, if you explain it to him like you just did to me, with all that mud and stuff, he might not be as angry." He said trying to comfort me.

"No, he's going to hurt and angry and upset." I looked up at Chase.

"Well you're only going to make yourself more upset by thinking about it. Come on, it's getting late. You need to get home and go to sleep." I looked out at the ocean for the billionth time that night. I stared at it, wishing in the back of my mind that I could just swim the ocean and go to my own little island, where there were people who would care about me. They would love me, and not be like any other people I had ever met. I sighed to myself. "You can look at it all you want; it's not going to change a thing." Chase said, as if he had read my mind.

"You're right," I said in a breath so low that I myself almost couldn't hear it; I looked at the boy. "Take me home." I said softly, like I had lost my will to speak. Chase nodded slightly then began walking toward the grass that we had emerged from; I followed shortly behind.

When we got back to town, the sun was now hanging low in the sky, casting a yellowish glow over everything. Chase didn't walk me all the way to my house; once it got in view he stopped walking and looked at my house.

"Well there it is." He said, with his hands in his pockets. Ever since we had started walking, my mood had slowly grown better and better with each step I took. It was something about Chase that just seemed to make me that much less upset. I smiled at him slightly.

"I think you're under thinking the term 'take me home.'" He shook his head and stuck out his lower lip.

"Nah, I mean I did take you home. You're home's right there." I looked over at my house, and my lips cracked into a full smile, and I even chuckled a bit as I spoke.

"That's a good five minutes away."

"Even if, that's you're home. So I took you home." I stared at him with my eyebrows raised. He sighed and hung his head low, then looked back up. "You're going to force me to be a gentleman, aren't you?"

"Someone has to." I said sarcastically, looking away like I didn't say anything; he smiled.

"Hey!" I laughed and looked back over at him. "Ugh, fine I'll walk you to your damn house. Come on." He said as he started to walk, I ran to catch up to his side.

When we actually got close to my house, he stopped and looked at me. "Is this close enough?" He said with a smile. I sighed dramatically.

"I suppose it will do." He laughed.

"Good. Now go in there and get some sleep. I didn't exactly mean to keep you out all night, and we both know that tonight will _not_ be a good night at work if you're tired and falling asleep on the job." I thought of how angry Hayden would get at me, and grimaced.

"Well in that case, I suppose I should go." I said with a small grin. Chase nodded.

"I suppose you should." I smiled then turned around to unlock my door. "But wait." I turned back around and looked at him. In that second he bent in and kissed me lightly on the cheek. When he pulled away he smiled and looked at me. "What kind of gentleman would I be if I didn't say goodbye the proper way?" It made me smile, not because it was unexpected, which it really was, but just because it was so sweet. I blushed slightly and looked down at my feet. I smiled brightly then looked back up at him.

"Goodbye Chase." He smiled and began to walk away. I once again turned into my steps and began to unlock my door when I heard someone.

"Mallory?" I looked up.

"Oh crap." I silently said out loud to myself under my breath. I stood up straight and looked over at Luke. "Uh, hi." Luke pointed over his shoulder into the direction that Chase had just walked way in.

"Chase?" For a reason unknown to me, I started to feel guilty.

"Uh, yeah. We kinda became friends." I was talking a little low, like I didn't especially want him to hear me.

"Yeah, I saw that when he kissed you." Luke said with a slight attitude. I felt mildly offended, and as I normally do when I'm offended, I got an attitude right back at him.

"It was only on the cheek." He crossed his arms at me.

"So where exactly were you guys that you got back so late? Or should I say so early?" He cocked an eyebrow. I walked toward him a little, and stared at him with my eyebrows furrowed.

"We get off work at three in the morning. No matter what time we get back it's going to be late." I said trying to reason with him.

"Then where were you for two hours?" I guessed that lying to him would only make matters worse, so I told him the truth.

"We were at the beach." He looked at me with another cocked eyebrow, like he thought I was hiding something. "Nothing happened." I said after a moment of silence. Luke looked up at the sky like he was puzzled.

"Hmm, a guy brings you to a beach at three in the morning, a romantic spot might I add, and you expect me to believe that nothing happened?" He asked accusingly.

"What is your problem?" I nearly yelled.

"My problem is that you're going to the beach at night with strange guys."

"Chase isn't a strange guy, he's my friend." Luke laughed sarcastically. I had never really seen this side of him before; his angry side. I didn't like it, but I suppose that I should deal with it, I knew I'd only be seeing more of it in the future.

"Yeah, a friend that wants to get in your pants." He put his hand on his forehead for only a second then removed it and looked back up at me. "Look I told you not to trust that guy. He's nothing but a mean kid who just wants to hook up with girls. I actually care about you Mallory, unlike that jackass who's only going to hurt you." For some reason, when Luke said that he cared about me, instead of it making me feel better, it was like a sharp knife in the stomach.

"Luke, you don't know what you're talking about. You don't even know him."

"You've only known him three days, you don't know him either!"

"I know him better than you, and he's not like that at all! In fact, we got to know each other pretty damn well just a few hours ago on that beach!" Luke grimaced, and I knew what he was thinking when I said that. He thought that I meant that Chase and I slept together; I had told myself that I wasn't going to lie to Luke, and I wasn't. I just wasn't going to say anything that would make him think otherwise.

"Mallory, you didn't…" Luke said suddenly calm. Angry at him now, I just kept running with the thought, though I knew that I was going to regret it royally later.

"Yes, we did Luke. Chase and I spent a good hour on that beach getting to know each other. I found out a lot about him and he found out a whole hell of a lot about me." Luke's face was dropping, and I knew at this point that I was purposely hurting him. But now, I couldn't seem to stop myself, I just kept going. "And if you can't deal with that, then oh well. Chase and I are going to be spending time together now, and if you don't like it, then maybe our friendship is over." I opened my door, walked inside and slammed it behind me. I stood up against the back of the door for a few minutes; I heard Luke walk away. I slowly slide to the bottom of the door and sat there. I began to cry. What in God's name had I just done?


	19. Chapter 19

**Luke's P.O.V.**

I walked away from Mallory's house with my head hanging low. I know that I had just exploded on her for nearly nothing, but I just couldn't help myself for some reason. I tried to calm myself, but everything she was saying was only making me more and more angry. But I didn't know what it was; actually, I do know what it was. It was that Chase kid. I know that Mallory's right and I have no reason to hate him when I don't even know him, but for some reason I just really don't like him, and whenever she talks about him I feel like stabbing my brains out. Not that any of that matters now, Mal will never talk to me again.

I got to the carpentry and walked inside, though I really wasn't in the mood anymore for work. I knew that I shouldn't have gone by her house today; I even knew better that that I shouldn't have spoken with her. But I did, and well now look at where we are, all because of stupid me.

When I walked in I went straight over to my working table and began whatever project that I had been assigned. I work in silence for a good few minutes when I heard Bo call over to me.

"So, you look like shit."He said from his own work table. I turned around and glared at him with steel hard ice in my eyes. He laughed and I turned back around to my table. I heard him come walking over to me, he placed a hand on my shoulder. I wished that his hand would burn up into flames. "I'm guessing it has something to do with that pretty little girlfriend of yours huh?" I pushed his hand off my shoulder when it didn't spontaneously combust.

"Bo I really don't feel like talking." I said coldly.

"But Lukey-boy! That's the best time to talk! Come on you gotta get your feelings out, your dreams, your wishes." I turned and looked at him.

"Ok, I wish you would burn to death." I walked away over to another part of the shop, just so I could get away from that life sucking parasite. He came and stood behind me slightly; I was leaning over on a table. He didn't say anything, which surprised me. For a minute he stood in silence, and I thought that was impossible for him to do. After a moment he spoke, but it wasn't in his normal obnoxious voice. It was kinda low-key.

"Luke," I turned around and looked at him.

"What do you want me to say Bo? I messed up, I screwed up! I had my chance with her and I waited too long. Now Chase has her, and he's not going to be an idiot like me and screw it up. I mean, you should have heard her this morning, how she was talking about him and—" I stopped short the looked at Bo confused. "Why am I talking to you about this?" I walked past Bo and began to make my way to the door. "I'm going to the blacksmiths." I was almost out the door.

"Lucas." I stopped and looked up to see my Dad standing in the doorway that leads into the back of the carpentry. He fingered two fingers at me for me to walk over to him. Knowing better than to defile my father, I walked back in and closed the door. "Let's talk, son." I glared past Bo and walked into the back room, where two beds where in case one of us spent an all-nighter at the shop, which happened quite often. We both sat down on one of the beds; he sighed heavily as we sat down. He looked over at me with a pain in his eyes, which was something I almost never saw.

"Luke, I never really told you much about your mother, did I?" His question caught me off guard, but I silently shook my head.

"No sir." He sighed then seemed to stare off, into the distant past.

"When your mother and I first met, we didn't think anything would ever happen between us. We never thought that we would fall in love, and get married, and have you. But as days passed we seemed to get closer and closer, much as I noticed with you and Mallory." I blushed slightly, he took a deep breath. "Time moved on and so did your mother. She started to date this other boy, and I was crushed. I thought that I would never get her back. But you know what?" I shrugged; I didn't much feel like talking still. "I did. Now I know it's not the same kind of thing with Mallory, I mean I know you're not in love with her, but you want her back as your friend right?" I wouldn't look straight at my father.

"Well, Dad, I like her more than just a friend…" I said it quietly. To my surprise, my dad smiled at me. I looked up at him.

"I know. I was just waiting for you to admit it to yourself." I sighed and got up off the bed and began to pace around the room.

"But Dad, now she's with Chase. She barely even talks to me anymore. And the last few times we did talk we just ended up screaming at each other. I mean, I want to be around her, I want to be with her, but I don't want to have to be screaming at her too." My father smiled slightly.

"So just talk to her. Without Chase being mentioned." I looked quickly over at him.

"I don't think that's possible anymore Dad." My father furrowed his eyebrows and me and crossed his arms from where he sat on the bed.

"And why's that?"

"Because, I can't even look at her the same anymore. And Chase, oh God, Chase." I began to feel a growing rage inside me, and I almost spoke with a growl. "Every time that I see him, or I hear his name I want to rip his throat out and stab him in the chest." As I kept pacing I saw my dad look at me like I was insane.

"Let's make a side note that we need to get you a therapist." I stopped pacing and looked at him.

"Daaaad!" I said it long and drawn out, like a whiny kid crying. Dad put up his hands in a 'stop' motion.

"Alright, alright. Why can't you see her the same and why do you basically want to kill Chase?" I began to pace again.

"Because she, she and, and he, and they, on the beach last night, and she…" I began to stutter. I honestly felt like having a break down right there in front of God and everyone. My dad got up from off the bed and came over to me; he placed both of his hands on my shoulders and looked me straight in the eye.

"Lucas. First of all, calm down. You're working yourself up for nothing. And now, tell me calmly, what happened." I took a few second to myself then took a deep breath.

"She said they slept together." My dad took his hands off my shoulders and just stared at me.

"Luke, you must have heard wrong." I shook my head back and forth.

"That's what she said to me this morning." Dad put one of his hands on his hips.

"She said those exact words? That she and Chase had sex on the beach?" I thought back to this morning and trailed through my memory. She hadn't exactly said that they slept together, but she wasn't saying anything to deny it either.

"Well…not those exact words." My dad stared at me like he normally did when I did something bad or got in trouble. "Alright, she didn't say that at all. But she implied it."

"Luke, I honestly cannot see that sweet young girl just sleeping with a guy she's barely known three days. That doesn't sound like her at all. But, then again you know her better than I would. So, I suppose if you want to go and just to conclusions, be my guest." My dad was using the guilt trip, or at least the technique that forced me to actually think straight. I sighed then went and sat down on the bed, with my face in my hands. My dad came and sat down beside me. "You said you talked to her this morning, well, yelled at her this morning. Why were you so upset?" I had been thinking about that ever since I got back, and just now as my dad asked me, the answer finally came to me. I took my face out of my hands and stared at the floor.

"I was jealous."

"Of?" My dad was talking softly, which he normally didn't do when he was trying to reason with me. I hated myself to admit this part out loud.

"Chase." I saw out of the corner of my eye that my dad was nodded his head slightly.

"Why?" I hadn't really thought about that part, but as soon as I did I knew the answer. And just to say it out loud nearly killed me.

"Because I used to be Chase," I looked over at my dad to explain. "I mean, I used to be the one that she would talk to, and spend time with, and hang out with. Now we barely even talk." I felt like crying; but I knew better than to do that in front of anyone else.

"So you miss her." My dad said, getting straight to the point of it. I nodded slowly.

"In not so many words, yes." Dad put a hand on my shoulder.

"So tell her that Luke. Just _talk_ to her for Christ's sake. She's a nice girl, she'll understand." He sighed deeply, I looked over at him. "Luke, I know it's hard to believe but I was your age once. I know how it feels to be this age and to feel like the person you like won't ever even look at you again. I know how it feels. But I also know you Luke. You're a strong kid, and I don't just mean physically. You've got what it takes to make it through this." I was blown away; my dad had never really opened up to me like that before, ever since my mom had died, he and I had kind of kept our personal emotions locked away. I smiled slightly, something I hadn't done in days.

"Thanks Dad." He patted me on the back and got up and walked toward the door. He opened it some then looked back over at me.

"Go see her tonight at work. I'm sure she'll be happy to see you. And Luke, I know that it's not love or anything, but I know that you'll be ok." My smile that had been hanging by a thread disappeared. I hung my head down.

"But Dad…," He looked back over at me. "I am in love with her."


	20. Chapter 20

**Mallory's P.O.V.**

My day was uneventful; I did some fieldwork, but not much. I wasn't in the mood or spirit to do anything. I spent my whole day with Fonzie; I stayed with him in the barn, sitting on a bale of hay, talking to him like he could understand every word I said. "Fonz, I don't know what I was thinking. I mean, Luke has been my best friend since I moved out here, the first friend after the accident." Fonzie looked over at me confused, he tiled his head and let out a small 'moo.' I told him out loud my whole secret about being raped and attempting suicide. Maybe it was just me, but I felt like I needed to hear it again. Last night when I had told Chase about my secret, I had felt twenty million times better afterward. So I figured that I would feel that way if I told someone else too, even if they were a cow. Fonzie didn't moo or interrupt me once while I was speaking. He had his head resting on my lap and it felt like he was really listening; and even though he was a cow, that felt really good to have one more person know.

I kissed Fonzie on the head when it was nearing six, when I had to go to work. He mooed as if telling me to stay with him, and if I could have I would have. But I knew that I needed the money, so beside myself I shut the barn door and walked away toward the bar.

When I got to work, the bar was exploding with people; more people than I had ever seen in this small little one-horse town bar. I made my way over to the counter and checked in with Hayden. I grabbed a pen and pad and began to go and take people's orders, though it wasn't long before I was hurrying along with Kathy to every table in the bar, trying to scribble down what people wanted. I could see Chase in the back growing frantic over all the meals that he had to cook. This one night was probably the busiest that I've been since working.

Eventually time caught up with the night and it grew late. A lot of people left, but we were still held with more people than we normally have. It was around this time that a certain person walked in, and sat down at the bar counter. When I first saw him, I looked straight over at Chase who was looking at me, a little unsure as to what to do. Luke just sat there at the bar, waiting to be served. I quickly ran over to Kathy.

"Kathy, you need to take Luke's order." She looked over at me like I was insane.

"Why can't you do it? I'm really kinda busy here." I looked back over at Luke, who was still just sitting there.

"Uh, I don't think that's the best idea." Not in the mood to argue, Kathy turned to look at me with a straight face.

"Mallory, this is part of your job. You need to do it, no matter what." She walked off toward a table that was waving her over. I sighed to myself.

"Ok, just don't blame me if a bar fight starts." I said to myself once she walked away. Begrudgingly I walked over onto the opposite side of the counter where Luke was sitting. He didn't look up at me when I walked over; he just kept staring at the table like he had been. I took a deep breath then spoke. "Uh, can I help you?" He looked up at me slowly, though he didn't have an angry look in his eyes like I had expected.

"Mal, can we talk?" My face exploded with shock; I literally took a step back from where I was standing I was so shocked. He spoke calmly and sincerely. I then took the step again that I had retraced. "And when I say talk, I mean talk. Not just yelling and screaming." His voice sounded sad. I didn't speak for a moment; I simply just stared at him. I then shook my head to clear my head.

"Uh, yeah. Just uhm, hold on." I ran over to the cash register where Hayden was standing. "I need to take a five minute break." I said quickly. He looked over at me and scowled. "Just five minutes, _please_." Hayden sighed heavily and looked away back over to the cash register.

"Five minutes. But the second that time is up I expect to see you back out there with Kathy." I smiled brightly at him.

"Thank you!" I ran back over to where Luke was sitting with my smile still subconsciously on my face. "Let's go outside." He looked at me strangely; my smile then went away and I regained myself. "More private." I told him. Without a word he got up and started heading outside; I quickly followed behind.

As soon as the door shut behind us, suddenly the eerie silence encased us and surrounded us. Outside was so much quieter than inside, and it was almost awkward for the few split seconds that we stood in silence. Luke's head was hanging down and his hands were shoved into his pockets.

"I'm sorry." Luke suddenly blurted out, without even so much as a glace up at me. I stared at him dumbfounded, unsure as to what I was to say.

"Luke, I—"

"No, let me talk." He cut me off. He sighed then looked up at me, his hands still in his pockets. "I'm sorry for how I've been acting lately. I've been a total asshole to you; I've been yelling at you for things that shouldn't even upset me. I'm just, I'm sorry." His head went back down, and it was silent for a minute.

"Me too." He looked up at me confused. "I'm sorry for how I've been acting. I, I haven't been completely honest with you lately. And I hate myself for that. I mean, we used to be best friends, and now…"

"…we barely even talk." Luke finished for me when I couldn't speak anymore. It was silent for an awkward about of time. Neither one of us knew how to respond to what he said; there was nothing to really say. What he said was nothing but true. I suddenly spoke out in the dead silence.

"I don't want it to be that way Luke. I want to be friends with you. I mean, you're the first person who got close to me since—" I was about to say since the accident, but then I remembered that he didn't know about that because I had refused to tell him. "—I moved here. So, whether you know it or not, you are an extremely special person to me."

"You're special to me too." He said quietly; I didn't know why but it made me smile.

"So why can't we just go back to being friends? We can put all this crap behind us and just start off from where we left off." I was smiling at him, though he wouldn't exactly look at me. I wanted to know why he kept adverting his eyes away from me; it was almost like he couldn't even stand to look at me. Finally he sighed and looked me straight in the eye.

"Mallory, I—" He stopped talking because suddenly the doors to the bar swung open and Chase appeared.

"Mal, not to interrupt your little Charlie Brown special you got going on here, but we really need you back inside." At that second, Luke's hands came out of his pockets and his head perked up, and he just got a lot more vocal.

"Dude, just give her a few minutes." Luke said, staring down Chase. Chase gave him a nasty glare and spoke hard. My stomach began to tie itself in knots.

"Not my orders. Kathy's." Luke's glare increased. He laughed sarcastically, though it sounded cold and covered in glass.

"You are such a freaking joke." Chase came outside and let the doors to the bar close behind him.

"Yeah? At least I don't yell at her over the stupidest shit ever imaginable."

"At least I'm not just being nice to her to get into her pants, like you. Oh, wait I forgot. You already did."

Shit.

Chase's face grew confused and he stared at Luke like he was some new kind of species that was beyond ugly. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"She told me that last night you two had sex on the beach." Luke said, glaring at him harder than I had ever seen anyone glare at anything. Chase's face went from beyond confused to just speechless.

"We never slept together." Chase said, suddenly talking calm. They then both turned and looked over at me. I didn't want to look at either one of them at that moment; in fact at that moment I wanted to shoot myself in the brain. But Luke caught my gaze, and I couldn't make myself look away.

"You lied?" His voice was still icy, but he was talking calmer. I felt lower than the worst criminal in the world.

"I, I was angry…" I said, not speaking louder than a mouse would.

"So you hurt me on purpose." Luke said louder, and with more coldness than Christmas in Alaska. I felt like crying. I knew that I would regret implying that Chase and I had slept together, and now I was hating myself for it.

"Luke I—"

"You know what; I don't even know what the hell I came down here for. Because it sure as hell wasn't for you." He turned his back and began walking away. I felt tears rolling down my cheek. I squatted to the grown and threw my arms over my head, as I felt tears strolling down my face. I hated myself, I hated myself, I _hated_ myself.

"Mal," Chase said after a few minutes. He was speaking quietly; he didn't sound angry or upset. He sounded like he was trying to comfort me, when in all honesty I wanted to cry by myself. "You told him that we…" He didn't finish his sentence. Through my sobs and sniffles I spoke.

"I was angry. I couldn't stop myself." I heard Chase kneel down beside me.

"So I guess that you're not in the mood to work anymore." I took my hands off my head and looked over at Chase and silently shook my head; tears still slightly spilling from my eyes.

"Just tell them I quit." I looked away from Chase.

"What?" He said shocked.

"Just tell them I quit." I said again and looked over at him again. "Because I'm moving back home."


	21. Chapter 21

"Mallory you can't leave." I heard Chase say beside me, his voice hinted with a bit of panic. I picked myself up off of the ground and wiped away the few tears that were still falling. He stood up and looked over at me, his purple eyes glowing. I didn't look at his as I spoke.

"I can't stay here anymore either. Because everything I do, I feel like I'm letting someone down. And I can't deal with that feeling anymore, Chase. I can't." I looked over at him, with watery eyes. "I've lived like that my whole life; I just can't do it anymore!" I screamed. Chase put a hand on my shoulder like he was trying to comfort me. I was looking down at the ground, so I couldn't see his expression. But from his voice, he sounded extremely sad, and maybe a little frightened, if not for me then for himself. I knew what I looked like when I cried and screamed and broke down like that, and let me tell you; it's not pretty.

"Mallory, just—" I pushed his hand off my shoulder and looked up at him.

"No, you go back inside and tell them that I quit. I'm going to go home and pack. This is for the better Chase. I know it is." I said with way more confidence than I felt. Chase sighed and lowered his head some, but still kept me in sight.

"Alright. I'm not going to get you to change your mind; I can see that. At least come and see me before you leave." He said as he began to turn away.

"I'm not leaving until morning, so I promise I'll come see you." The doors opened and he walked inside without a word. Then that sharp pain that I knew so well jabbed me in the side, once again. I had let Chase down.

Tears again began to drain out of my eyes, though this time I couldn't stop them. I simply stood there outside of the bar crying, I didn't even have the strength to walk away. A sudden clash struck above my head. I looked up at the sky and began to get shot at with water. The sky roared with thunder and brightened the sky with the lightning that was trying to put on a show. Regaining myself after the clash, I pulled my hood over my head and wrapped my arms around myself. I began walking home, though I decided that I would take the long way home, and walk through the forest.

The air around me had gotten bitterly cold, I should have expected. Autumn was only days away from arriving over this little island. The rain came pummeling down and was stomping on the ground with every drop. It was coming down fast, and the winds had picked up an enormous amount. The pummeling rain and clashing thunder was soon enough creating a nice background melody to my hysterical crying. My head was down, and my eyes were shut. With my hands locked around myself I shivered in the oncoming night. Each step I took I could feel the air growing colder and colder. Though I didn't care, the coldness was numbing and the numbing felt good.

I had said before that at night this island turns into an enchantment, which it does if it's not storming. But if it's storming, the whole land turns into a scene straight out of a bloody gory horror movie. With every flash of lightning that streaked across the sky, in that one shimmer of light I would get the silhouette of each and every tree, and each time a bolt cascaded across the sky, I would feel as if those trees had come to life, and they were walking in and closing in on me. I looked up and could see nothing but the blackness that was in front of me; I couldn't even see my own hand in front of my face. I stopped walking and stood there in the pouring rain and looked around. As I stood drenched, I realized that I couldn't see anything but forest, everything was dark and black. It was at that moment I realized that I had no idea where I was.

I started to run, to nowhere in general, just run. I had begun to hyperventilate, and was having a difficult time breathing. Each and every step I took, I couldn't see anything, just darkness and the shadow of trees. My hood had gotten in my eyes, and now since I officially couldn't see where I was running, I felt myself trip over something; whether that be a root or rock. I fell to the ground and crashed into the dirt that was slowly morphing into mud. I almost didn't want to get up; I wanted to stay there, drenched in rain and mud and just let myself be at peace for once. I picked myself up half way; I was leaning over on my hands and I looked up to see if I had any luck of seeing my surroundings. I didn't. Ultimately giving up on myself, I allowed myself to drop back down into the muddy dirt. I wanted to lay there forever, no one was screaming at me, no one was disappointed or let down. I wanted to stay here; I wanted to die here.

**Luke's P.O.V.**

I was lying in bed but still very much awake. I couldn't sleep. I had tried to forget about what had happened earlier with Mallory, but I couldn't knock it out of my brain. I figured that if I slept, I would forget about this whole mess, forget about her, forget that she lied, but forget that I loved her? I grimaced in my bed at the thought of forgetting her. Ever since she had moved here I had been happier, I had been laughing more, having more fun. All because of her; she was the reason for my happiness.

I began to think hard as I lay in my bed, listening and watching the storm clash and rave outside my bedroom window. She lied to me, yes it hurt. But she had also said that she only lied because she was so worked up and angry; if I hadn't gotten her that worked up and upset she never would have lied. So in turn, her lying to me was my own fault. I glanced over at my clock; it was only a little after three in the morning. I wanted to see her, I needed to see her, I had to see her. I don't care what time it is, I don't care what the weathers like; I would walk through storms, tornados, hurricanes if it meant that I would be able to see her beautiful shining face. I needed to tell her, she needed to know.

I threw my covers off of me and stepped onto my floor, it creaked and screamed in the floorboards but I was too out of it to even notice. I switched on my light and put jeans and a hoodie on. I wandered out of my room and shut it quietly; I didn't want to wake my dad. I began to walk down our hallway and just when I got to the top of the stairs, Boss came running up them a mile a minute. He jumped up on my and tried licking my hand. I pushed him away and climbed down the first step; Boss barked at the creak it made. I looked over at him and put my index finger in front of my mouth and told him "shh!" I heard my dad move around in his room, and I thought for sure he would get up and see what was going on.

"Hmm, Luke?" He called through the door, he still sounded tired and half asleep. Quickly, I tried to think of something.

"Uh, I think the storm is scaring Boss. I'm gonna go downstairs and try to comfort him." I called through the wall to him.

"Don't stay up late." was all he responded with. Thankful that he was too tired to care, I ran down the stairs the rest of the way and came to our living room. I ran over to the door and opened it slowly, careful not to make any unnecessary noise. I pulled my hood up and slipped out the door ninja style. I shut it as slowly as I opened it, and once it was good and closed, I ran off toward Mallory's house.

The rain was coming down seriously hard, and felt like small jellybeans were hitting me instead of raindrops. I ran through the mud and dirt that was forming around the road and splashed through every puddle that stood in my way. The island was really dark, and if I hadn't lived here my whole life I would say that this was a different island.

When I got in view of Mallory's house no lights where on and her house looked quiet. I figured that she had actually had luck falling asleep. I didn't really want to wake her, but I needed to talk to her. I ran up to her house and banged on the door, loud enough so she would hear me if she was sleeping. I called her name multiple times, but no one came to the door, not even a light came on. Either she was ignoring me or she was a really heavy sleeper. Unwilling to give up, I turned her door knob, which surprised me by being unlocked. Hesitantly I walked inside. I looked around, but all I could see was an empty house. I walked in a little further and went to her bed, no one was there. Her bathroom door was open; I poked my head in a looked around, not a soul in sight. She wasn't here, but then where would she be? I kept staring around her empty house, hoping for a clue or a hint or something as to where she would be, but I found nothing but a room filled with silence.

I thought back to when I had seen her earlier, I had walked away, but Chase had stayed there with her. I sighed to myself, I didn't want to but I knew that if I wanted to find her I would have to go see Chase, if anyone would know where she was, it was him.

I ran all the way across town to the inn, and barged inside soaking wet. I ran up to whoever was working nightshift, which happened to be Maya. I ran up to the front desk quickly, out of breath from my run. I could see Maya looking at me like I was insane.

"Luke…can I help you?"

"What room, is, Chase in?" I said as I tried to catch my breath. Maya looked through her little book of residents; she ran her finger across a line until she found his name.

"A19. Why?" I didn't even stay to tell her why. As soon as I heard the number I ran up the stairs and down the hall until I found the room with the matching numbers and letter Maya had said. When I found it, I banged on the door hard, not caring if I woke him up. I guessed he wasn't asleep because he opened the door after the second bang.

"Kinda last minute to ask for a slumber party, huh?" He said when he saw me. I didn't even care about his sarcastic comment; all I was focused on was Mallory.

"Where's Mallory?" His face went from a smug grin to a glare.

"Man, she needs time away from you. You're the reason that she's been so upset lately, just give her some time to herself. Not only that but you'll end up making her cry even more." I shook my head furiously.

"You don't understand, Chase I'm—"

"Luke, just let her go! You're going to have to anyway, she's moving back home." My expression went blank and I lost my voice for a moment. I stared at Chase wide eyed and began shaking my head.

"What?" I said calm all of a sudden. I could feel my heart crushing on top of itself.

"She's leaving tomorrow morning." I looked up at him confused.

"Then where is she now?" I said, with my worry coming back to my already shaky voice.

"Did you check her house?" I nodded; I could see that Chase was thinking in his head, what I had already come to the conclusion of in my own. "But she said she was leaving tomorrow…"For a second both me and Chase simply stared at each other, as it was like we both came to the same conclusion at the same time. "We gotta get to the docks!" Chase blurted out what I was already thinking in my own head. I nodded again and began to walk down the halls and down the stairs to the door. Chase grabbed a hoodie and a beanie and followed after me.

The rain was now, if possible coming down harder than before, and the wind had again picked up impeccable speeds. We got to the docks and ran into the dock house, searching around for the captain that handles all the transportation.

"Pascal!" The old man turned around and looked at us.

"What can I do for you two boys?" He was speaking like me and Chase were five years old. Chase pushed in front of me to speak to Pascal.

"Did you give a boat ride to a girl named Mallory? Brown hair, my height?" Pascal looked to be thinking over in his head, but then turned to both of us, a confused and thinking face he wore.

"I recall her from the first day that I brought her here. But other than that I haven't seen her since then." Chase and I looked at each other.

"So you didn't give her a boat ride recently?" I asked.

"Not recently, no." Chase and I looked at each other again, and without even saying a word both of us ran out of the dock house and back into town.

We were running through town when I heard Chase stumble behind me, I stopped momentarily and looked back at him. He was bent over with his hands on his knees.

"Dude, you're tired." I walked over to him and helped him to straighten up. "You need to go back to the inn." He looked at me like I was crazy.

"Are you insane? No way, I want to find her." I sighed, and looked at him.

"Chase, if I find her I'll tell you I promise. Besides, when I find her there are some personal things that I need to talk to her about anyway." I looked away some. I could feel Chase staring at me.

"You love her, don't you?" I looked over at him, and slowly nodded. He sighed to himself, then put a hand on my shoulder. "Good luck dude." He began walking away, but then looked back. "And you better tell me when you find her." He waved me off and continued to walk. I turned to face the entrance of town, that same entrance that Mallory and I stood under the first day I met her. Now thinking back to it, that was the best day of my life. I ran out under that entrance going past town, and around the wooded area. I would find her. I had to.

**Mallory's P.O.V.**

I had been laying here for at least an hour; it had to be an hour. The mud around me was slowly growing higher and soon it would cover my ears from where I was laying. What was I even doing still laying out here? I knew that I should have gotten up and kept looking around for my house; I had decided to take the long way after all. I sighed, my eyes were closed. Tears were still slowly one by one seeping out of my eyes, but I didn't do anything to stop them. I didn't wipe them away or shake them off my face. I let them stay there, let them soak into my skin and once again become part of me. Why was I even still alive? I have no purpose to live. I thought that coming here to this island would give me a second chance at life, but apparently I'm that kind of person who doesn't deserve second chances. I don't deserve to be a live, I shouldn't be alive. I could be dead, and enjoy not having all this pain and heartache that a screw up like me always seems to cause. I don't deserve to live.

That was the moment.

That was the moment that the same devious little thought crept into my mind on that same day that I had decided that I was going to jump from the bridge. Actually I take it back; I do get second chances, just not at the good things. I'm only worth the bad things, so I get a second chance to kill myself.

I glanced around me and saw a rock, or maybe a piece of a rock. It was sharp and jagged; perfect for piercing skin. For the first time since I fell, I forced myself to sit up; I reached out toward the rock, no bigger than a cell phone. It seemed to fit perfectly in my hand, like it was shaped and made for this exact moment in time. I slowly Held out my arm, with my wrist completely exposed and naked, just waiting to be cut. My hands were shaking and trembling, and I couldn't control my breathing. I then began to think about it; dying I mean. Honestly I picture this the perfect way to go, its dark and at night, no one would find me until morning. I might scream, but I'm sure whoever would be asleep would only let in sink into their imagination and picture it in a nightmare, much like the one I'm living in.

I've wasted enough time; I've wasted enough of everyone else's time. I need to do this now, it won't hurt long, just let the pain melt away as I die. Slowly I bring the rock's sharp edge closer and closer to my trembling arm. I close my eyes, and tears roll down my face. I'm not far away now, I know it. This is it, my last goodbye. My last I'm sorry.

I'm sorry Mom. I'm sorry Dad. I'm sorry Evan. I'm sorry Chase. I'm sorry Luke.

Luke… I grimace at the thought of him.

I'm ready to do it; I'm going to do it. I bring the rock up higher to gain momentum, and I let my hand come down.

"Mallory!" My eyes fly open and my hand stops not even an inch away from my wrist. My eyes that are swelling with tears look up and see a boy standing above me. In my shaking hands, the rock drops into a puddle of mud. The boy kneels down and throws his arms around me, he's crying, I can tell. I take a minute to myself; I'm in a state of shock. "Mallory, oh my God Mallory." He says into my shoulder. Finally my senses kick in, and I come back to. I bring my arms around him and hug him tightly. He pulls away from me to look at me, the rain still coming down hard, but it lightened up a bit. His topaz eyes are burning with emotions.

"Luke…?" I said in almost a whisper. Without warning Luke goes in a kisses me, right there sitting in the puddle under the falling ran and booms and flashes of light. This kiss was nothing like the kiss he had given me when he walked me home before. I began to kiss him back and this was a passionate and a long kiss. It was almost romantic, if you had a sick sense of romance. As he breathed in, I breathed out, it was long.

When we finally pulled away he looked at me straight in the eyes. "Mallory, I'm in love with you; deeply in love. You're all I think about, all I dream about. I know that I've been an asshole to you lately and I'm so unimaginably sorry about all that. I want to be with you more than I've wanted anything in the entire world. I was jealous, and I know that gives me no excuse. I just wanted to be with you again so badly. And what I had just seen, I don't even want to think about what would have happened if I hadn't come, I don't think I can live without you Mallory. I just can't. Please I hope that you can forgive me for everything that I've done, I'm so, so sorry and so, so in love with you." His arms were still locked around me and mine where still around him. I stared at him, I didn't say anything, and I didn't look away. I just stared. He put his forehead against mind, and whispered to me. "I love you Mallory."

I didn't say anything, I just lifted his face up again and kissed him again, right there in the mud and pouring rain.


	22. Chapter 22

I let go of Luke and pulled myself back; his arms were still wrapped around me, and I could tell by his strength that he wouldn't release anytime soon. I wouldn't look at him; I looked down, and simply stared into the mud, small tears were falling from my eyes. I didn't know why I was so sad; Luke had just confessed that he loved me. So why was I crying? The rain was light now, but the rolls of thunder and lightning were still clashing loudly. I sighed to myself. I knew why I felt so bad, why I was crying. I was still lying to him; through all this, I had lied. The reason we were both sitting here in the mud in the dark hours of the morning is because I lied, and I wouldn't tell him my past. It was my entire fault and that's why I was crying. I felt guilty.

Luke shook me lightly, though I didn't look up into his face. "Mallory?" I closed my eyes tightly from where I was staring at the mud. I didn't want to feel this way anymore. I don't need to feel this way anymore. With my eyes still closed I lifted my head and looked at him. I took a deep breath and opened my eyes, and without hesitation I spoke.

"I was raped." Luke's eyes widened for a moment before returning to normal, as I expected they would. His face was wiped over with shock, and he stared at me like I was mentally insane, which by this time, there was a very good chance I might be.

"What? When?" He spoke slowly. Again, I spoke with no hesitation. I didn't want to lie to him anymore; I just wanted him to know.

"Back home. That's the real reason I left. I ran away. And what you just saw here," I pointed to my wrist. "Well, that's not my first time attempting it." I explained everything to him; each little tiny thing about me being raped and suicidal. I told him about Evan, and my parents. He finally knew everything, and it lifted an enormous weight off my shoulder.

Luke sat with his arms around me, staring at me with no expression. I figured he was still taking everything in; it was quite a lot to handle. Then he looked at me, and I grimaced. His eyes, his beautiful shimmering topaz eyes, where swimming with pain and drowning in hurt.

"Why didn't you just tell me?" I looked away; I didn't know how to answer it. But I realized that lying got me no where but back to being suicidal. So I went with the truth, as much as it pained me to speak it.

"I didn't think you would understand. I thought that you, you would think I was some freak," I looked away and grimaced to myself as I thought back to the few people back home I had told about my being raped. "Everyone else did. They would just stare and point, and whisper things like 'that's her!' or 'that's the girl who was raped.'" I looked back over at him. "People would tell their friends about me, and their friends would tell their friends. It got all over the city. And I was suddenly known as the freak; the last thing on earth I wanted was for you to think of me like that." I placed my hand over his and looked deeply in his eyes. "But you need to believe me when I tell you that I wanted you to know many times. I wanted to tell you. But I just never did." Luke's grip on me loosed, but it remained. He looked away from me, like he could barely handle to see my disgusting liar face.

"Mal…" He began, but I wanted to cut him off and finish what I wanted to say.

"Luke, wait. Before you say anything there's one more thing you need to know," He looked back over at me, with the same pain glimmering from his eyes. "Since we're on this whole honesty thing, I want you to know something. I told Chase," Luke stared at me, no expression; just stared. Though the part that just about killed me was that I wasn't done my sentence. "Three days after I met him." Luke let go of me, and I swear I wanted to pick up the rock all over again.

It was major confession time. And this time, I wasn't going to mess up and lie. I would pour my heart and soul into this boy if it meant for him to stay with me; I couldn't loose someone else who had grown so close to me. Luke wasn't looking at me, but I took a deep breath and began to speak anyway. I prayed that he would hear this, and sense the sincerity in my pleading voice.

"Luke I screwed things up. I've been screwing up my entire life. But if there's one thing that I don't want to mess up, it's you and me. I care about you Luke, as hard as that may seem to believe. I know I hurt you and that hurts me badly. But you're one of the best things to ever happen to me. And I can't let my dumbass decisions mess this up. I know you're hurt, and I'm so sorry. But please believe me when I say that I care about you so much, and it nearly kills me to think of how bad you're hurt. And it makes me what to pick up that rock and kill myself, just to know that I was the one who hurt you so bad. You need to know that I wish none of this happened. It wasn't in my plans whatsoever. I came here to run away. But I didn't expect to find you." For a minute he didn't move, he just kept looking away. But then he cocked his head slightly and placed his eyes on me. I thought I saw the smallest smile for only a millisecond, but a smile at that. He then looked back away and started to stand up. Once he was up, he looked down at me where I was still sitting. I felt so small.

"Let's get you home. You need sleep, and I don't want you getting it out here. Come on." He held a hand out to me, and I took it grateful that he was still showing compassion. He pulled me up, but the quick movement caused me to loose my vision for a moment, and my head hurt for only a short time. I held onto Luke for support, his hand on the small of my back. "Can you walk?" He asked, sounding more comforting that I'm sure he felt.

"Uh, yeah just—" Before I could even finish my sentence he picked me up into his strong muscular arms and held me bridal style. It took me by surprise at first but I quickly nestled myself in his strong embrace. I wrapped my arms around his neck and closed my eyes; I was tired. He held onto me gently and I was so happy just to be in his embrace.

When we got back to my house, he placed me down on my feet on the front step and opened my door for me. He didn't bother turning on the lights, and I was grateful for that. I didn't think my eyes could handle the light right now. He walked me over to my bed and helped me onto it and under the covers. The rain had stopped and the lightning and thunder had gone to a minimum. Even though I'm sure it was near dawn, no light was across the sky, the clouds kept it an early gray.

Once I was under the covers, Luke slowly bent over and kissed me on the head. I stood over me, and stared into me. His pain and hurt had seemed to disintegrate from his eyes, leaving just a liquidly gold.

"Mallory, I love you. And I don't think that will change. I know you've made mistakes, I know you're sorry. I forgive you. But even if you weren't sorry, I'd still love you." I smiled beside myself. He slowly bent in and kissed me lightly on the lips. He smiled at me and began to walk away toward my door, when I realized, I didn't want him to go.

"Luke, wait." He stopped in his tracks and turned around to look at me. "Don't leave."My voice was nothing but a mere whisper. He slowly walked back over to me, and stood at my bedside. He grabbed my hand and rubbed his thumb on the outside of it. He sighed slightly and stared at my hand as he rotated his thumb. "You can sleep here." I said, only one decibel louder than last time. He looked at my face, and with the most angel like reflectance in his eyes, he spoke to me.

"Where?" He wasn't Evan, he wasn't Evan, _he_ _wasn't Evan._

"Here, in my bed; with me." He looked at me like I had just suggested we go jump off the empire state building. I swallowed and look straight at him. "I trust you." I moved over in my bed to make room for him. He stared at the newly created space and looked at me skeptically.

"You're sure?" I haven't been surer about anything in my entire life. I seemed to have lost my voice, so I only spoke in a whisper.

"I don't want you to ever leave me alone." Hesitatingly he climbed into my bed and lay down beside me. He was lying on his side and staring at me, our hands were intertwined together. My body had stiffened and my breathing was labored. It wasn't Luke that was making me nervous, it was just being in the same bed as a guy I trusted and cared about; it brought back memories. Luke let go of my hand and placed it gently on my cheek. The second his skin made contact with mine, my breath was swept out of me and I un-stiffened.

"Mallory," I looked at him, I was shaking slightly, though I didn't know if it was from Luke's touch or the memories. "I'm not Evan."

I was reassured. In those small three words, my shaking stopped and I regained myself. All I needed to hear was that, he wasn't Evan. He was Luke, and he wouldn't hurt me. I smiled slightly and placed my hand over Luke's that was still lingering on my cheek. He tossed me a small smile as well.

"Now get to sleep. I know you're tired." I nodded.

"Goodnight." I turned over to my other side, so Luke's arm could wrap around me as we lay their sleeping. Before I totally nod off, I feel Luke inch his head closer to me and he whispers in my ear.

"I love you Mallory." After a few minutes I knew that Luke was asleep, mostly because I could hear his tiny little snores. I was about to join him in slumber when a small little devious almost murderous thought invaded my skull.

He said he loved me, I hadn't said it back, any of the times. I liked Luke, I knew that. But did I love him?

Did I really want to take a chance and love someone again?


	23. Chapter 23

I went into work the next day, happy, but with a little bit of a cloud hanging around my head. I wanted to love Luke; I knew that for a fact. But could I really do that again after what happened last time? I knew that he was nothing like Evan was, and I wasn't scared that Luke would take advantage of me, because I knew he wouldn't. But no matter how sure I was of Luke, I didn't know if I could cost putting my heart out there again. Though I knew if I did, Luke would be the best caretaker.

I guessed that Luke had told Chase about my episode the previous night, because I didn't need to explain anything to him. He was obviously happy that I was alive and ok, but I could also tell that he knew that something was off. I wanted to talk about it, but I didn't want to bring it up.

The night wasn't busy for a change, and I barely had any work whatsoever. As I waited for a table to serve, I sat down at one of the tables myself and put my head in my hands. I needed time to think, I needed some time to myself. I liked this small town, but I needed to find a smaller place of my own that I could just run off to sometimes. I lifted my head back up, and was shocked to see Chase sitting across from me, leaning on one of his elbows on the table.

"So, uhm, are you gonna tell me or do I have to ask?" I played dumb.

"Ask about what?" He took his hand away from his face and sat up straight.

"About the purple unicorn behind you. What do you think Mal? I'm talking about that huge raincloud that's hanging over your head. Come on, I thought you were happy." I am happy. So why do I feel so sad? I thought for a moment, but then took a deep breath.

"I'm scared; scared for my heart, for my heart to get hurt again. I'm afraid to love again. Actually, honestly I'm terrified." Chase leaned out and put one of his hands over mine.

"I know what you're saying. But, listen to me Mallory. Me and that boy of yours didn't exactly start off on the right foot. In fact, we didn't even start off on the left foot. And I in all honesty thought he was kind of a jerk that was controlling and just wanted to get with you. But I was wrong, really wrong. He's not like that at all; he's a good guy that really loves you. And I think he proved that last night. Listen, there isn't one other guy on this island that I would trust to be with you, but Luke, well he proved himself. He isn't going to hurt you." I smiled at Chase; he was becoming an expert on making me feel better. "But," he stopped my thinking. "None of this means anything if you don't love him back. This boy might wait for you forever, but he won't necessarily stop other girls from waiting for him. And who knows, he may get bored waiting. He needs to know how you feel about him." My smile had slowly disappeared as he spoke. It only hurt more to know that every word Chase said was right. And in that second, I made up my mind about Luke.

"You're right Chase. He needs to know. I'm taking off early. Tell them that I'll work extra some other time to make up for it." I quickly got out of my seat and took off the apron I wore around. I threw it over the counter and ran out the doors, and quickly jolted my way up to Luke's house.

On the way to Luke's house, I passed by the carpentry and saw that Dale was outside, so I knew that he wouldn't be home and Luke and I could talk as we pleased.

When I got to his house, I almost somewhat banged on his door. When I did I heard Boss inside start to bark up a storm, and I could hear footsteps walking my way. Luke opened the door, and began to smile. But I didn't waste any time whatsoever. I threw my arms around him and kissed him, very hard and passionately. Luke stumbled back, probably in shock, and closed the door as he put his hands around my waist. I made the kiss long, and I went in deep. It was one of the most passionate kisses I had ever given, or been given in that matter. Once he pulled away, he smiled at me brightly, more bright than I had ever seen him smile.

"Hi to you too." He said with a giddy giggle. My arms were draped around his neck; I wanted to be as close to him as possible. I smiled and kissed his cheek lightly. "So, is there a reason you came running to see me, or did you just want an amazing Luke kiss?" He said playfully. I jokingly thought for a moment.

"Hmm, both." I said as I kissed him once again. I let go, and removed my arms from his neck. I took his hand and led him over to his couch, where we both took our seats. I looked over at him intently, and held his hand.

"Luke, I love you." Hey, love was about taking risks. His eyebrows went up for only a split second before a huge smile came across his face. "And honestly, I think you're the only guy I've ever loved."

"But, what about Evan?" I smiled at him so brightly, and I finally knew why. There were no more secrets between us; he knew everything about me and my past. Not only that, but I could finally admit something to myself about Evan, that I've known for a while.

"I never loved Evan. When we first started to go out, yeah I liked him. But as time went on, I realized that I didn't even like him anymore much less love him. I just grew accustomed to putting on a fake smile around him and just doing the motions. In fewer words, I was pretending. But with you, I don't have to pretend with you. Everything I say and do is how I really feel; everything I am when I'm with you is how I really am. I don't change around you, I don't pretend, and just knowing that makes me feel better about us." He smiled at me, and then kissed me once again.

Another month had gone by very quickly, almost too quickly in some cases. Then again, everything has been going by so quickly. Luke and I had been dating for a good month and a half, and he had told me that tonight we would just be having a romantic dinner in, instead of going out to eat like we did quite often. Rumors about us clouded the town, most of which were rumors that I was pregnant, which was completely the opposite; Luke and I had never even had intercourse. Other rumors were that we were planning on running away and getting married. Honestly, the rumors didn't bother me. I let the people think what they please. Although I would kill to know who started those lies. Though I suppose I would never know.

I pulled back on work, rather than working every night I only work the weekends now, so I have much more time to be with Luke and tend to my farm, which is slowly growing. In the month that passed I bought a chicken, Pedro, which was also tremendously helping with my money income.

I don't have money problems anymore, I wouldn't say that I exactly have money to spare but I can buy the essentials needed to live, and it was nice to know that I had actually taken control of my life back.

Luke arrived at my house near eight o'clock, only because his father made him work overtime in the shop, and then he had to go back to his house and clean himself up, which I was alright with. He brought over some of his dad's homemade sloppy joes for us to eat. It may not have been a romantic food, but it was sweet when Luke would wipe food off my cheek. We sat down at my table and ate them as we mindlessly talked about anything. Since we started dating talking to him grew easier and easier, until I could practically say anything to him.

"Ok, so you want to hear a new rumor I heard today?" Luke took a bite of his sandwich and nodded. "I heard that we were secretly brother and sister, and we were going to fly to Japan and make it big there and be multibillionaires." I said laughing. Luke chuckled slightly then looked at me.

"That's not true at all. We're not related." I laughed and took the last piece of my sandwich and plopped it into my mouth. "Well, guess what Bo told me today? That apparently we're just like rabbits and we can't keep off of each other, and that we do it all the time." I shook my head and rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, I hear that one all the time." Luke chuckled, but then it got silent. The only time that it may get a little awkward between Luke and I is when the topic of sleeping together comes up. It's not that I never thought about it, I just didn't know if I was ready to do anything considering that last time I did I was raped. But then again, I trusted Luke.

For the remainder of the night, we simply just laid on the couch together and watched movies. It was sweet and romantic, and I think I dozed off once or twice in his arms. We didn't even notice how late it had become until it was past two in the morning. Luke nudged me slightly, as I had began to doze off again. I opened my eyes and looked at him, still a bit tired.

"I think it's a little past time I go, don't you think?" He pointed to the clock that hung on my wall. I looked over and saw the time, and straightened myself up on the couch. I rubbed my eyes and looked at Luke, who was starting to get up and put his jacket on. Winter was almost here and it was quite cold out. I watched Luke put his jacket on, his back to me when I noticed a flaming teddy bear on the back of his jacket. I chuckled.

"Nice jacket." Luke turned his head and looked at me slyly.

"Isn't it sexy?"

"Oh, yeah." I said sarcastically. He walked over to me, and bent down to kiss me goodbye. I grabbed him by the collar of his jacket and held him there for a good minute. Once we finally let go of our kiss, I let go of his collar and he began to walk away toward the door. I made a quick decision in my head, and didn't want to pass it up. "Luke, wait." He turned around and looked at me; his hand was on the doorknob. "Why don't you just sleep here? I mean, you don't have to get up for work in the morning, and judging by the time your dad's already asleep, and I mean you don't want to wake him up with the loud sound of the door, do you?" Yes, I was pushing it. But I was also just trying to get him to stay. He looked at me with a skeptical look, but then he looked over at the clock and sighed.

"You are right." He looked back over at me and smiled. "Slumber party!" He tore off his jacket and ran over and hopped into my bed. I stared at him from where I was on the couch. "I call the side by the window." I chuckled to myself.

"Fine, you can have that side." I got up and walked over to where the light switch and flicked it off. I wandered over to where my bed was and slowly climbed in beside him. As soon as I got in, I didn't want to waste any time. I snuggled close to him, and slowly began to kiss his neck. He almost immediately got what I was saying, and pushed me off a bit and stared at me.

"Mal…" He didn't say anything else. I'm not sure if it was because he didn't know what to say or he was just too shocked to say anything.

"Luke, I don't want to be scared anymore. I'm not scared anymore. I want to do this, I mean if you do." I gently and slowly moved my hand under his shirt and gradually moved my hand around his chest. He grabbed onto my wrist, but he didn't stop me from touching him. Slowly he inched his body closer to me, as I realized I was subconsciously doing the same.

"Of course I want to," He was whispering. "But I want to make sure that this is your choice. I don't want you to feel like I'm pressuring you to do anything." I whispered back to him.

"I don't feel pressured Luke. I love you, and I want to show my love for you. Besides, this time it's my choice, and I want it to be with you. Extremely slowly, even slower than I moved, Luke released his grip on my wrist on explored his hands around the bottom of my shirt. Gradually, he began to pull up my shirt higher and higher.

"You're sure?" He whispered as his lips grew closer to mine.

"Positive." I breathed as our lips touched. Calmly, he continued to pull up my shirt until my shirt was scrunched up around my arms and neck, and my bra was fully exposed. My hands were lingering up and down his shirt as well, and calmly peeling his shirt away from his skin.

Very gently, Luke began to touch me, though it wasn't rough and hard like I remember from back home. I almost liked the feeling of sensuality and closeness I was having with him. Eventually he pulled my shirt completely over my head, and I did the same to him. His chest was warm against my cold body. Luke was kissing differently I noticed. It was a calm kiss, but a very deep kiss. Now I'm not saying he was shoving his tongue down my throat, but I could feel his tongue. Eventually we pulled the covers up and the clothes that had remained on our bodies flew onto the floor quickly.

I felt him against me; he had never felt so close to me before. I almost felt like I was apart of him in some weird way. Luke extremely gentle the whole time; he didn't push anything and was very hesitant. At some points I had to make him do things because he was so cautious.

For obvious reasons, this time was nothing like the last time I had been in bed with someone. Last time was hard and brute and forceful with someone that I didn't even care about. But this time it was with someone that I loved, and I knew he loved me. This time with Luke in my arms, it was different. It was special, and even almost magical.

Hours later Luke and I just lay together on my bed; his arm was around me and my head was resting on his bare chest. We were both still naked under the covers, but I didn't want to dare lose this moment in getting up and putting underwear on. His eyes were shut, and I'm sure he was asleep or almost there if not already. His breathing was quite and calm; I could hear his heart beating though his chest as I lay atop it. I absentmindedly stared out my window at the moon, which was flooding limited light into my bed. I smiled to myself and closed my own eyes. I realized that this was the first time I had ever truly been happy.


	24. Chapter 24

Waking up the next morning came easier to me than other days. I've never been a morning person, but this time I didn't mind waking up and looking out to see the beautiful sun shining through my window. I looked over and saw that Luke was still sleeping gently, his arm still around me. I smiled to myself, and not wanting to wake him I slowly and as quiet as possible I smuggled myself out of bed and dressed myself. I kissed Luke lightly on the cheek before I went outside and checked on my barn.

As I was milking Fonzie and picking up Pedro's eggs, I was thinking to myself about last night. It was weird for me to officially admit to myself that I wasn't a virgin anymore. I mean, yes I had been raped twice, but in a way I still considered myself a virgin. But now, I wasn't. And since it was with Luke, it didn't bother me as much as you would think.

I had let Pedro and Fonzie out to graze around while I did some minor field work. Since the weather was growing colder, not much would grow. Though I still attempted to plant and harvest things, but nothing would really grow. I was trying to water a seedling when I heard my door swing open then close again. I looked over at Luke coming out the door and walking over to me. He put his boxers back on and was still shirtless, but wore his green and black flaming teddy bear jacket over his bear skin. His hair was mildly trying to be tamed by his blue flaming bandana. His arms were wrapped around himself.

"It's cold out here!" I chuckled and turned back to face the seedling.

"Maybe if you had a little more on, you wouldn't be so cold." He smiled at me smugly then bent down next to me, placing his arms over my back.

"Or I can just hug you until I get warm." He jokingly nuzzled his head on my back. "Come back inside with meeee." He whined cutely. I grinned sarcastically at him.

"Luke," I was about to say more when I felt something cold and wet drip onto my nose. I looked up and saw that tiny flurries of snow were starting to fall. Faster and faster they increasingly came, and I even admit that I grew colder. I looked over at Luke, who was giving me a sly grin.

"I think that was God's way of telling you that you should listen to me." I couldn't help but laugh at him. Without a word, I got up and started to herd Fonzie and Pedro back into the barn. Once they both were safely back inside, with a restocked supply of food and water, I shut the barn door and walked back inside my house with Luke right beside me.

We stayed inside all day long, just enjoying each other's company. We watched TV, talked and joked around with each other. Luke, if nothing else, was indeed my best friend.

"So, I think you should make me a sandwich." I joked with Luke. He looked over at me from where he was on the couch, whereas I was in my bed playing solitaire.

"Oh? And why's that?" He smiled.

"Because you make freaking good sandwiches." He giggled and walked over and plopped down beside me on my bed, messing up my cards, but I didn't care enough to get mad. I was losing anyway.

"Yeah? Well, I can let you try my best sandwich; the knuckle-sandwich!" He playfully punched me in the stomach and I fell over onto my back as he punched me. He fell over with me, and lay right next to me. We were quite close, so close that it was almost obvious that we would kiss, which we did. Once he let go, he looked at me without a smile and a little seriousness in his eyes.

"How was last night for you?" He said calmly, trying to search my expression for answers. I answered with the first words that came to my mouth, and thankfully none of which I spoke where lies.

"It was better than I could ever have imagined." He smiled, and kissed me again.

"Good, cause I wanna do it again tonight." My smile faded slightly, when Luke quickly added "I'm joking!" I smiled and laughed at him. He got up and began to walk back over to the couch, when he abruptly stopped and turned his head and spoke in a devilish voice. "Or am I?" He winked playfully and sat back down on the couch. I was thankful that I knew Luke well enough to know that he honestly was only kidding.

I began to reset all the cards on my bed when something struck me. I suddenly looked up at the back of Luke's head. "I wasn't kidding about that sandwich you know."

Over the time that had passed, Kathy and I had actually become pretty good friends, well enough that I could tell her the things that girls tell other girls about their boyfriends. We exchanged a lot of personal information actually. I worked up the courage to tell her about my raping, though I didn't tell her about my suicidal actions. I figured I would take it one small step at a time.

But I did tell her a lot of things about Luke and I, things that would be a little awkward to tell Chase, just because he's a guy. But not only did she learn about me, I learned quite a lot about her too. Turns out that Kathy knew about Owen's humungous crush on her, and that she liked him too. She was just waiting for him to finally ask her out. But aside from all that, Kathy and I told each other things, so I was naturally going to tell her about what happened with Luke and I the night before. It's not my fault I have a little gossiping problem.

"Hey Mallory!" Kathy happily said as I walked into work the next day. I smiled at her happily, even though she knew nothing about me and Luke yet.

"Kathy, I think that I need to talk to you." I couldn't keep the smile out of my voice. She looked at me skeptically. "It's about me and Luke." I practically gushed. She smiled at me like she already knew. She suddenly turned to look at the clock, and then looked back at me.

"You know, we have like a few minutes before shift officially starts, so I think you should tell me now, because I'm horrible at waiting." She wasn't lying there.

I pulled her over to an empty back table and sat her down across from me. I didn't exactly know how to really start it off, so I just figured it would be easier to just say it then try and convey it in some kind of secret way that she would never get anyway. I mean, Kathy was smart, but she was a blonde, and sometimes she did fulfill that dumb blonde stereotype.

"Luke and I, well we kinda did something last night." She smiled at me; I couldn't stop myself from smiling.

"Mal, are you talking about the 'did something' I think you're talking about?" I blushed quietly and shrugged slightly.

"If you think did something means kissing, then noooo." I drew the word out for effect. She smiled really bright, then leaned in and whispered.

"So you guys really did it? Finally?" I nodded happily. She smiled and squealed, but then looked at me with no hint of a smile on her face.

"You two used a glove right?" It was a little personal, but I answered anyway.

"Yeah, before anything went too far, I made him stop and go get one." Kathy looked at me with a small, mature looking smile and nodded like she approved of what I had done.

"Good, cause did you hear what happened to Selena?" I didn't even know who Selena was, much less what happened to her. I shook my head slowly.

"I don't even know who she is." Kathy leaned back in her chair and stared at me like she was about to school me.

"She's the slut of the town. She's a stripper down on Toucan Island, but she prefers to be called an 'Exotic Dancer.' She's been with more guys than guys that live in this town. But apparently what happened to her was that when she was about to get with a guy, she pretty much did the same thing you did to Luke last night. She told him to stop and go get a condom before he stuck it in her." I giggled slightly; yes I know how immature I am. "So he did. But, it turns out he was in such a rush to get with her, that he didn't put it on right, and it didn't protect a thing. Selena got pregnant at 17." Shocked, I asked the most obvious question.

"Did she keep the baby?" Kathy looked down sadly.

"No. The baby was never even born." I too looked down and felt a little depressed at the thought that she had an abortion. "But," I looked back up at her. "I just say all that so you can be aware. I trust that everything went fine last night, well, actually I should probably say better than fine." She winked awkwardly at me. I smiled slightly. I liked Kathy, I really did, but she could be so weird sometimes. "But, just be cautious. Ok, well I don't know where I'm going with this, and you and me need to start waiting tables, so come on. Let's get to it!" I got up and followed her lead on starting to wait tables, but her words stayed with me the whole night. I kept thinking now, and I couldn't stop thinking. I couldn't remember the last time I had gotten my period, but I imagined that I should be getting it again soon. Really soon actually. Actually, I should have it right now.

Half way through the night, I got myself so worked up about this that I had to run into the bathroom. I shut the door, locked it and pulled down my pants.

I was late.


	25. Chapter 25

I tried to think rationally at first. I mean, just because I didn't have my period didn't exactly mean I was pregnant. I could just be honestly late; I mean, it happens to me all the time. I'm sure that's it, yeah that has to be it. I mean, Luke wasn't really rushing last night. I know he was trying to do it quickly, but, he couldn't have been in so much of a rush...could he?

I tried to shake the thought out of my mind. Thinking about it now wouldn't help me any. I took one of the deepest breaths I had ever taken and pulled up my pants and walked out of the bathroom.

When I walked back out of the small tiny breathless room, I looked over at the clock that hung endlessly on the side wall. My shift seemed to be going extremely slow this evening, I still had two hours to go even after it felt like I had already been here three hours past due. I sighed to myself and went on working and waiting tables, though silently watching the clock with a steady eye, just waiting for this night to be over.

A half hour before my shift was over, the whole bar had cleared out; not a soul in sight aside from the few of us that had to stay and be the working help. I sat at the bar with my elbow on the table helping hold me up and watched mind-numbingly as the clock hands ticked back and forth. The world seemed to be moving slower tonight, though everything inside of me was going a mile a minute. My heart had been beating like a drum for the last few hours and I could feel my bloodstream beating as well. Hayden came over to where I was sitting and looked at me like I was a child of his own.

"Hey there. You seem to be looking a little on the nervous side." I had to admit it, he most certainly had the fatherly touch in his voice. Though I never heard that from my father, all I ever heard out of my father's mouth was money, money, money. I looked over at him with my elbow still holding up my head, and my other arm over my stomach. I had a horrible pain in my lower torso.

"Nah, I'm not nervous. I'm just in pain; I got this bad aching in the pit of my stomach." He rubbed a hand on his short little goatee then snapped his fingers as if he just realized the solution to world hunger.

"A shot of whiskey aught to lighten you right up." He walked over to the backside of the bar and grabbed a big whiskey bottle and poured a small amount into a glass and walked back over. He placed it down in front of me and smiled whole heartily. "Drink up, lass." suddenly, the pain in my stomach grew twenty times worse.

I looked back up at him with an apologetic look in my eyes. "I don't think drinking is a good idea for me right now. I have a gut feeling it would only make things worse." He stared at me like I had three heads.

"What are you talking about? Whenever Kathy would have a stomach problem when she was younger all I would have to do is give her a shot of whiskey and she'd perk right back up. Now come on, take your drink and feel better." I shook my head slowly.

"Hayden, please. I don't want to drink right now." He looked at me like I had just broken all ten commandments.

"Mallory, I know you pretty well. And you would normally never turn down a drink. And there's only limited reasons why. Either you're pregnant, or you have just gone mad." I was shocked at his sudden words, they came as a mild surprise. At this point now, I knew that Kathy and Chase were watching and listening to Hayden and I. Trying to save myself in any possible way, I looked over at the two who were watching.

"Guys, I'm not mad, and I'm not pregnant," I turned back to Hayden. "I just don't want a drink." Hayden stared hard at me then loosened his gaze and shrugged.

"Have it your way." He turned and walked back over to the cash register. I gripped my stomach again as another rip of pain went spiraling through my body. I looked over at Kathy and Chase, who had gone back to their work. As I held my stomach, I realized that I had told them I wasn't pregnant with a lot more confidence that I felt in saying it.

The whole rest of the night, I stayed mostly to myself. Or at least I tried to stay to myself. When I had to approach a customer or Hayden and Kathy, I didn't exactly meet eye contact and I tried to say as little as possible. As the night went on, my sociability had dropped increasingly after Hayden talked to me. It wasn't that I was exactly worried, I was just unsure. And I didn't like that feeling. I figured that after work, I would go back home, go to bed and then tomorrow talk to Luke about all this.

The night was over and I was beyond ready to go home. Since it had grown so cold, I grabbed Luke's flaming teddy bear jacket that he had let me borrow and slipped it on. I walked out the door and the cold nipped at my face.

When I turned to walk away toward my house, I heard a voice call my name. I turned around to see Chase standing slightly a ways behind me. His face didn't even look like his own in the almost morbid turning moonlight. No smile was placed on his normally funny and cute face. For a few moments, I simply just stared at him, I stared until he spoke.

"So, you gonna tell me or do I have to ask?" I knew what he was referring to, my behavior earlier. God, Chase doesn't miss a freaking thing.

I didn't answer right away. I took a moment to think to myself, I mean I had only become unsociable earlier because I didn't feel well and I just didn't want to speak with anyone. That's not so wrong, is it? I moved a little bit over to Chase and looked him straight in the eye.

"There's really nothing to tell. I just didn't want to talk earlier, I didn't feel well." He cocked an eyebrow at me and nudged his head over to the big tree and lake that we stood at the first night I had work. There was a bench nearby that we both sat down on. He looked me straight in the eye, with still, his smile no where in sight.

"Where?"

"Where what?"

"Where didn't you feel well?" The pain that I had was a mixture of my stomach, and a little lower than that. I pointed to my stomach. He looked at me like I was clearly hiding something. "That's it?" He asked eagerly. I sighed slightly.

"Well, it hurt a little lower than that too." Chase looked over at the lake.

"Mhm. Mal, this is gonna sound personal but I want you to answer. When's the last time you got your period?" I looked at him shocked.

"Chase..."

"Just answer me." I sighed again. There was no sense in lying about it to him.

"About last month today." He looked back over at me.

"So you should be having it again right now, shouldn't you?" I nodded slowly. "And do you?" He asked suddenly sounding a lot more like a father than a friend. I shook my head. "So, you're telling me that you're late." It wasn't in question form, but I gave an answer anyway.

"Yeah. Why are you all of a sudden so interested in my menstrual cycle?" He grimaced a bit at the word, which normally would have made me smile. But not right now. Chase was treating me like I had done something terribly wrong, and I hadn't, whatsoever.

"I'm not. But I'm interested and concerned about you. Mallory, it's been on my mind, it's been on yours, I'm sure it's been on Luke's too. You can't possibly deny the obvious signs of it. Mal, you might be pre—"

"Shut up!" I stood up and looked at him. "You don't know anything, you don't even know what you're talking about. I'm not being stupid and denying the fact that I _might_ be, but there is nothing set in stone. It might just be coincidence that my stomach hurt and I'm late. There is no solid proof so you can't say a thing. And not to mention you're talking to me like I'm five and I just broke all the commandments. So shut up Chase, just shut the hell up!" I was nearly screaming at the top of my lungs. I felt like running outta there, but I held myself back and tried to be a big girl for once in my life.

Chase pretty much just stared at me dumbfounded, like I had thirty heads. Honestly, I was shocked at myself. I had never exploded like that on anyone, not even Evan. I felt like I was obligated to apologize but for some strange reason I held myself back on that too. Chase's face twisted into a bit of disgust.

"Mallory, I'm sorry. I didn't know this was a big touchy-feely issue with you. I guess I should have asked permission first before I spoke with you. Sorry, my bad. Won't ever happen again, I promise." Chase got up and began to walk away from me. Know what an ass I had just been, I began to grow disgusted with myself.

"Chase, wait, I'm sorry. I'm just, kinda really confused and I don't know what's going on, and I'm growing a little tense, and I guess I just momentarily snapped. I'm really sorry." He turned around and looked at me with his arms crossed. After a few seconds his arms dropped and he sighed.

"Mal, I think you need to talk to someone. And I'm gonna be that someone, right now and right here." He pointed down to the now vacant bench. I looked over at the bench, and at that moment it looked like one of the most painful places that anyone could ever sit. I grimaced but reluctantly sat myself down next to Chase. My hands were in my pocket, and I didn't look at him, but he spoke anyway. "Mal, you know I care about you. You know that I want the best possible for you. But, tonight, how you were acting, I know that's not really you. So please, I can see that something is obviously on your mind. Just, talk to me about it." His words were sweet, but they only shattered like glass in front of me. I looked over at him slightly.

"Chase, you're right. There absolutely is something on my mind, and I do need to talk about it. But I can't with you, it's personal." I could see the dagger go through his chest in his eyes.

"Mal, you can tell me anything."I swallowed and looked away.

"Chase, I, I'm scared." He moved himself closer to me and placed his hand over mine. "I'm terrified actually."

"What are you scared of exactly?" I was scared of a lot of things. The fact that I actually might be pregnant just about makes me go to pieces by itself."

"There's too many things to name." In that moment, I realized that Chase was actually right. I did have to talk to someone, but that someone wasn't Chase. I had to talk to Luke, I needed to. I pulled my hand away and stood up. "I have to go." I said more coldly than I intended. Chase too stood up beside me.

"Why? Where are you going?"

"I need to talk to Luke." Before Chase could say another word, I turned my back and started running to Luke's house.

I banged on the door when I got to it; and I banged loudly. Since it was 3am, I should have been more sensitive to Dale's sleeping, but at the moment, I didn't care. I needed to see Luke, I _needed_ to talk to him.

I heard slight barking behind the door right before I heard light footsteps. The door opened slightly and Luke poked his head out and looked at me. Without a word he slipped out and closed the door behind him. We met and held our eyes for a good minute before I looked away, and walked down his few front steps gripping myself from the cold. He followed behind me and placed a hand on my shoulder.

"Mal? Are you ok?" I walked forward and sad at the base of a big tree in his front yard, he followed and sat beside me.

"I don't know." I said a little above a whisper.

"Mallory, what's going on?" He said with a hint of urgency in his voice. I sighed slightly and looked over at him.

"You want to get married some day, right?" He stared at me confused for a moment but answered.

"Yeah, someday."

"And you want to have kids some day?"

"Eventually." He moved his hand over and held mine tightly.

"Well, what if 'eventually' comes sooner than you thought?" I looked off into the distance as he processed what I said in his head. His grip on my hand loosened. I could feel his eyes burning a hole into the side of my head.

"Mallory, are you trying to say that you're..." He didn't finish his sentence. He didn't have to. I looked over at him, slowly.

"There's a slight possibility." He moved away from me by the smallest inch.

"But you're not completely sure?" I shook my head no. "Why do you think that you're, uh,"

"Pregnant." I finished for him.

"Uh, yeah. That. Why do you think that you are?"

"I had horrible cramps and stomachaches all throughout work, and I'm late." He stood up and held out his hand to help me up; I took it and walked toward the dirt road that laid in front of his house. He followed.

"Well, that doesn't necessarily mean that you're pregnant, does it?" I looked back at him. His face was written all over, and the biggest words that I could make out were "I don't want to have a baby."

"No." I answered solemnly.

"So, how can you figure out if you really are or not?" I walked back over to him with my arms crossed.

"Go to the drugstore and buy a pregnancy test." He cringed in a cute way.

"But, won't I look a little awkward?" Beside myself, I smiled a little at him.

"They won't think it's for you Luke, I promise." I actually chuckled a little at the end of my sentence, which surprised me. He smiled slightly at me too. "Hey, the quicker you get one, the faster we'll know for sure." That seemed to motive him.

"Ok, I'll go get it. I won't be long, so just wait here." He kissed me lightly then started to trot down the dirt road to town. I saw down under the tree we had just been under, and thought to myself.

What if I was pregnant? How would Luke take it? It was plainly obvious that he doesn't want me to be pregnant, not now anyway. But if I was pregnant, would Luke be there to support me? I can't imagine that he wouldn't be apart of the baby's life, but, what if his and my relationship gets ruined? I can't imagine that, I couldn't live like that.

I pulled out the grass that was laying in front of me, when one specific thought invaded my head; did _I_ want to have a baby? And after a few good minutes of hardcore thinking, I got my conclusion.

Yes. Yes I did. But Luke didn't.

I saw Luke running down the road after about six minutes. He ran up to me out of breath and handed me a small little bag that had a small little box inside of it. "Here." I grabbed it and was about to turn and go inside and take the test, when I stopped myself and looked back at him.

"Luke," I said quietly. "Do you want to have a baby?" He was silent for too long.

"Of course I do. But right now, isn't exactly the best time to have one." I think I felt my heart literally break in two pieces. One piece for an unborn baby, and the other for Luke.

I didn't have any words for him, so all I did was nod and walk inside his house and head for the bathroom.

Once in the bathroom, I opened the test, took the test, and then placed it down on the counter top and waited. I sat on the toilet seat cover, as with each second that ticked by made my stomach of butterflies flutter even stronger. The seconds that passed where the longest I had ever experienced in my entire life, and with them passing I kept thinking of Luke's words. _Of course I do. But right now, isn't exactly the best time to have one._ Each time they replayed over in my head, another stab wound was inflicted in my already broken and fragile heart.

From where it sat on the counter, the test beeped. I had my results; but now that they were here I was too scared to even look at them, because either way someone was going to be unhappy.

I picked myself up, and walked over to it, and forced myself to look, and when my eyes caught sight of sign, I felt like crying. Whether that was from happiness or sadness, I have no idea.

It was positive. I was pregnant, and I was happy, but I wasn't at all, because the boy I loved, the boy I wanted to want this baby too, didn't want it.

I stuck the small little stick in my pocket, just because I didn't want it in the trash can at their house, and I headed back out front. When I reappeared, Luke looked at me with high hopes on his face. I didn't know how to tell him that I was going to have a baby, I didn't know how he would take it, I got scared. So I did what I do when I get scared.

"Negative." I breathed at him breathlessly. He ran up to me with a smile and hugged me tightly.

"Thank God." I heard him say to himself. The test in my pocket now felt so heavy, a thousand pounds heavier.


	26. Chapter 26

I woke up the next morning in Luke's bed alone. When I first regained my consciousness I looked around confused as to why I was in his bed in the first place. But as my mind slowly put itself back together I remembered the happenings of the previous night, last night; only hours ago. My stomach started to twist into knots just like the web of lies that I had created. I sat myself upright though I stayed in bed under the covers. I had no intention of getting up right away; honestly I had no intention of even dealing with myself at the moment.

Luke's door had been cracked open, and from the crack emerged a big furry mass that came running at me and hopped up on the bed and laid beside me. I smiled slightly to myself, and pet Boss lightly on the head.

"Mallory?" I looked up from the dog and saw Dale standing in the doorway. His face was suspicious, like he was wondering why I was in his son's bed. I could feel my cheeks get red and my face get hot.

"Dale, um..." I forced myself to think of the words, but nothing came into my stupid little head. "We didn't do anything last night. I swear." I sounded like such a little kid again. His face broke out into a warm fatherly smile, and he chuckled to himself.

"Don't fret. I know, I believe you. I told Luke that you could sleep here any time you wanted to, because I know you're a good kid, and you won't do anything that you're not comfortable with." I looked away and grimaced to myself, then looked back. "Either way, I came to tell you that there's breakfast downstairs on the table if you're hungry. But Luke cooked it, so if you do eat, I implore you, watch yourself." He laughed to himself again; I threw him a small smile, though Luke was the last thing I wanted to think about.

"Thank you, but I'm not really hungry right now."I pet Boss slowly again, though Dale stood at the doorway still. I wasn't looking at him, but I knew his smile went away and he was thinking to himself.

"Mallory, are you alright?" He pushed the door open and walked inside some. I never felt all that close to Dale, but knew that he was a good listener. He came and sat at the edge of the bed. "You can tell me anything." In that moment, I looked up at him, but not as Luke's father, as my father.

"What do you do, when the truth would kill someone, but a lie would only put them in a fake happiness?" Even though he was Luke's dad, and I knew there was a pretty good chance that they would speak about it, I felt completely comfortable talking to Dale. He looked away from me and sighed to himself.

"You do the right thing."

"How do you know what the right thing is, when you're surrounded by all the wrong things?" He looked back over at me, and gave me a very loving fatherly look.

"You just know. And I'm not sure what you're talking about Mallory, but I know that you _do_ know the right thing to do. You're just scared to do it." I hated the fact that he was right. "And either way, I'm sure that this wrong can't go unnoticed for long." I felt a sharp pain in my chest. I looked at him, much like a daughter would.

"Thanks Dale." He reached out and placed a hand over mine.

"Not a problem lass. Luke told me about your parents, and I want you to know, that anytime you want to talk, I'll always be here for you. Just like Luke will." I smiled at him.

"Thank you so much. That means a lot." He smiled at me also then got himself up and walked out of the room. Boss followed quickly behind him. Each and everyone of Dale's words floated around my head, but they just refused to actually sink in.

Today was Sunday, meaning that the bar was closed today, so I didn't have to go into work tonight. After I told Luke that I had off tonight he told me that me and him would go out on a date, something we hadn't done in a long time.

"I'm going to knock you off your feet again, just like I did the first time we went out to the waterfall." I chuckled as we walked hand in hand in the slowly falling snow.

"Knocked me off my feet? You didn't even need to push me, I had already been falling." He looked over at me in the oncoming moonlight with a smile. I was speaking truthfully, but I felt like I was still downing in all the lies. And each time I looked over at his cute, bright smiling face, I only felt worse.

We came to the waterfall; the same waterfall that we had first really connected at in the beginning, and we sat down at the same spot that we did on that night before. Though now since it was so cold, the fireflies were absent, and the ground was covered in snow, but the lake and waterfall still looked as amazing as the first night that I had been here.

"Oh I know you had already fallen. Because I caught you, remember? When we first met?" I smiled to myself thinking back to the best day of my life.

"Oh I remember. And I'm so happy that you caught me, because if you hadn't I would have smashed my face into the dirt. And that would not have felt good." He laughed for a minute, then pulled me closer and put his arm around me.

"You know, when I first met you, I never thought that I would love you this much." When I first met you I never thought I would lie to you this much...

"I feel the same way." I wasn't lying as I said it. I do love Luke, so much. And I want to believe that's why I lie to him so much, because I love him too much to hurt him with the truth.

He started to kiss my neck, he started to suck on it, and I could feel myself starting to get aroused. I didn't want to do anything with him right now though, I knew that if I slept with him again, all my feelings would get all smashed around again and then I would never want to tell him the truth.

I pushed him away from me slightly, and he stopped and looked at me. Before he could fill his own head with any thoughts, I figured that I should clear up why I pushed him away.

"Since we last did it, I don't think I'm ready to do it again." If I hadn't had a past filled with rape, I don't think he would have taken it as well as he did. He nodded at me understandingly.

"Ok. We don't have to do anything." He smiled at me.

"You really are amazing Luke." He kissed my forehead.

"Not nearly as amazing as you." I felt pieces of my heart break off as I sat there in the arms of the boy I loved, and the boy I was lying to.

Luke walked me back to my house as he held my hand. Aside from what happened, it was just a normal night for us. We talked, we laughed, we smiled. We enjoyed each others company, just as we always do.

When we got in front of my house, he took both of my hands in his, and looked deep in my eyes. "Mal, I love you with all I have. You are the most beautiful, amazing, wonderful person I have ever met. I know I'm young, only 20, but I want to spend the rest of my life with you." I felt butterflies form in my stomach. He smiled slightly. "Now, I'm not necessarily proposing right now because I have no ring, but I'm telling you that I want you to be the one I marry. The one I raise a family with. I just want it to be with you." I was speechless, I couldn't think of anything to say. "You don't have to say anything Mal. I just thought that you should know how I feel. I love you." He bent down and kissed me lightly. "Goodnight." He turned and walked away, and I was left standing on my front step alone with his words and my guilt.

I turned to walk inside, when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around spooked, and saw that Chase was standing behind me. I sighed a sigh of relief then looked at him like I was scolding him.

"You know I hate being surprised." His humor was gone.

"I need to talk to you. Can I come in?" Even though he asked me, he opened the door before I did and walked inside.

"Sure." I said sarcastically as I too walked inside. He sat down on my bed, while I went to my kitchen and made myself a cup of hot chocolate. "Want any?" I asked when he stayed awkwardly quiet. He shook his head slowly, though he wouldn't look at me. I walked over to where we was on my bed and sat down beside him, and I set my cup of chocolate down on my nightstand.

"So, uhm, you wanted to talk?" He turned toward me.

"Tell me the truth." I raised one brow at him and started at him confused.

"What are you talking about?"

"The truth. I heard from Luke that you're not pregnant. But for some reason I don't believe that. Now tell me truthfully, are you carrying a baby at this moment right now?" I grew quiet and I wouldn't look at him. But I could feel his eyes on me, and knowing better than to lie to two people, I nodded my head slowly. He got up from where he sat and began to walk around. "And are you ever going to tell Luke?" Suddenly, I felt hate. I felt anger. There he went again, acting and talking to me like I was a little kid. I stood up and looked at him.

"Yes, I'm going to tell him."

"When?"

"I don't know but I will. Chase, I'm not a little girl, you don't have to stand up and try to protect me. I can stand on my own thank you very much." I said sternly. Chase looked over at me with a glare in his eye.

"Really? Are you going to be able to stand on your own when you have a baby and Luke is no where to be found? Are you really going to be able to handle taking care of a child while you raise a farm, try to make money and have your own life? Mallory I'm trying to be a good friend here, I actually care about you." My eyes glared daggers at him.

"You _actually_ care about me? As if you're trying to say that he doesn't? I know he does Chase. I know he freaking does. I have no idea if you heard any of what he said to me before you showed up but he told me that he wants to marry me. And if that's not caring about someone, I don't know what the hell is!"

"I didn't come here to fight with you Mallory."

"And I didn't let you in to put me down. Oh wait, I didn't let you in at all." I took a moment and grabbed a deep breath; I looked away from him and walked over to my window. I could hear that he took a breath too. The floorboards warned me of his walking closer to me.

"Mal, I really don't want to fight with you. Actually, I came to tell you that, if Luke isn't around to help you with the baby, I will be." I felt my anger slowly drain away, and I looked over to him. "I'm not saying that Luke won't be there, I'm not saying that at all. I'm just saying that I will be whenever you need me. Mallory, I don't even think you know how much I care about you." I didn't know if it was my hormones acting up or not, but I began to tear, and before I even realized I was tearing, I was crying full on. Chase pulled me into his embrace, like he had that first night on the beach, when I needed to know that someone cared about me.

"I've gotten myself so tangled up again, haven't I?" I said as I cried slightly into his shirt. He lifted my chin up so I could look at his face.

"I'll always be here to untangle you." For a second, I forgot everything. His words, they were so genuine, so sweet. And when I say I forgot everything, I really forgot _everything_.

I had no idea what it was, maybe just the gravitational pull messing with my head, but I felt something pulling me closer to him. So close, until our lips touched. But the moment they did, my second of forgetting everything turned into a minute. All I knew in that minute was that I was kissing Chase, and that's all I wanted to know, until I remembered that only inches below, Luke's child was growing in my stomach.

Once realizing what I was doing, and remembering everything and everyone else, I pulled myself away quickly. I walked away, over back to my bed. I held my fingers on my lips, as if I was trying to take the kiss back. I looked over at him, with an annoyed yet apologetic face.

"Chase..." I lost my words after his name. He scratched the back of his neck.

"That was another reason I came over...Mallory, I'm kinda in love with you."


	27. Chapter 27

I had to step back from him, literally. I backed myself up a few feet and just stared at him. My face was purely expressionless. He stood there, like a stone, his face was hard but I could see his eyes were soft, they were his vulnerability. I looked away from him and walked over to my bed and sat down. I could hear that he was walking over toward me, but I couldn't bring myself to look up at him. I had so many new thoughts and feelings surging through my body that I just could barely handle it. He sat down beside me silently; he kept his distance.

"Mallory, I, I'm sorry." Suddenly, I felt guilty. And I was really getting tired of feeling like that. I turned myself so I could look over at him.

"You don't have to be sorry. You have nothing to be sorry for. You can't help it."

"I've felt this way for a while. But I knew that you loved Luke, so I tried to control myself. But, with you Mallory, it's different. I've liked other girls before, but none of them compare to how I feel about you. From the day I met you, I got this same feeling that I have now. When you first smiled at me, you don't even know how amazing it felt. But then I would see how you would smile at Luke, and all I wanted was for you to look at me that way. Maybe that's why I wanted to be the one you talked to about your problems. Not to mention, you were the only one here that didn't think I was the spawn of Satan. It didn't take long for me to open myself up to you, because I just automatically felt so comfortable around you. That's why I told you about my childhood; something I haven't really told anyone else. Ever. Mal, I didn't want to feel this way about you, and if given the choice to not feel this way, I would, because I know that now it has completely screwed up your thoughts. But I just, I needed to know how it felt to kiss you; to for just a few seconds be connected to you. I'm sorry Mallory." I felt like crying.

As he had spoken, he was talking soft and low, and he wouldn't exactly look me in the eye. I can't imagine how hard it must have been for him to just admit all that to me. I reached out and placed my hand over his; he looked in my eyes for the first time since the kiss.

"Chase, you don't have to apologize. You didn't do anything wrong at all. And trust me, I somewhat started to feel the same way about you. I mean, I felt like I could completely talk to you about things that I wouldn't dare to speak of around Luke. And, who knows, if Luke hadn't been here maybe you would have been the guy for me. But, as much as it might break your heart to hear this, you're not. But you are for some other girl, and when you find her, she will be the luckiest girl ever because I know that you will love her like no one else ever has. Chase, I do love you, just in a different way than you want me to. And so for that, _I'm_ sorry." Without hesitation, he pulled me into his arms for a hug, and I gladly hugged him back.

"I should be going," he said as he let go of me and started to get up. I got up too and followed him to the door. He opened the door then turned back to look at me. "And I meant what I said, about the baby. If you ever need help, I'll always be here for you." I smiled at him.

"I know you will, Chase. Thanks." He bent over and kissed me on the forehead, then walked out into the cold night.

After he left I grew exhausted, simply just from the events of the day. I figured that sleep would be the best possible thing for me right now, so I turned out my lights, and crawled myself into my little warm cozy bed. Quickly, I fell into a deep sleep.

There was a bang on my door; I got up and walked over to it and opened it. It was Luke, and he looked angry. He was dripping wet from the storm that was making itself known outside. "Luke?" I asked.

"When the hell were you going to tell me?" A bad feeling sunk down low in my stomach. He came walking into my house, and shut the door behind him.

"Tell you what?" I had a feeling I knew what he was talking about, but I figured it would be better to just play dumb.

"That you were pregnant." His voice was an icy stone. I could hear thunder and lightning crash outside. My stomach started to knot itself.

"Luke, I was going to tell you I swear." I started to walk closer to him and he backed himself up.

"Bullshit!" It was like his words crackled so much, that the thunder and lightning outside mirrored his voice. At the same instance, a lightning bolt must have hit a pole, and all my lights went out, leaving me and Luke in the eerie darkness. His face was nothing but a silhouette in the moonlight and bolts of lightning. "Mallory, why would you lie to me about that?" He wasn't exactly yelling, but his voice was deep and loud. Tears started to well up in my eyes.

"I got scared!" I screamed through tears.

"So you lie to me again? Goddamn Mallory, I don't even know who you are anymore! How am I supposed to know that you're telling the truth when you talk to me? How do I know you aren't lying when you say you love me?" I felt like dropping to my knees and assuming fetal position.

"I do love you Luke!" He walked further away from me as another flash cascaded the sky.

"Then why do you lie to me like I don't matter at all?" His voice was suddenly a thousand times calmer, and I think that hurt just as much as the words. I walked over to him.

"You do, Luke. You matter to me so much." He turned to face me, his eyes were as cold as ice.

"If I matter so much, then why did you kiss Chase?" His voice had gotten much louder, just as the thunder's audibility seemed to keep increasing. I tried to wrack my brain for the words but I couldn't find any, because there were none. "Mallory, I used to think that I knew you so well. I used to think that I was the person you could tell anything to. But now realizing that you can't even tell me that you're pregnant with my child," He paused for a moment and stared at me skeptically. "It is mine, right?"

"Of course it is! I haven't been with anyone else!" I screamed over the thunder.

"How would I know? I don't even know you anymore!" And the bullet penetrated my heart. Tears were rolling down my face like waterfalls.

"Luke, please don't say that. Please. You do know me, you know me better than anyone else ever has." He glared at me then looked away out the window.

"I used to. Now, I'm not so sure." I couldn't find my voice, so I walked away. I went over to my bed and sat down. I looked over at him, and he was simply standing at the window watching the rain fall.

"Who told you anyway?" I asked when I couldn't handle the silence anymore. He looked over at me and snickered almost wickedly.

"Your precious little Chase." My eyes grew slightly wider.

"What?" Luke walked over to me with his arms crossed.

"Yup. He stopped by the shop and it happened to come up," he laughed sarcastically. "You know, the only thing I was thinking as he was telling is why am I hearing this from him. I should have been hearing it from you. Actually, screw that, I should have known. Why couldn't you just tell me when you actually took the test? You know, I'm not a bad guy I would have understood. I would have gotten used to the idea. But you know what, I don't want to have a baby, or a family, with someone who constantly lies to me." I got up from where I sat and wrapped my arms around him, and for a second, I could feel that he almost hugged me back.

"Luke please don't say that! I love you too much to hear that! I'm so sorry I didn't tell you, I'm so sorry! Please, you can't do this to me, you can't just leave me here like this!" I was crying and screaming, so I had no idea how much of that he actually understood. He pushed me off of him, and I let myself fall to the floor.

"Mallory, I loved you. I loved you so much. And I thought you loved me too."

"I do love you!" I screamed.

"But I don't even know anymore. I can't trust you. You keep hurting me and I keep being surprised when you do. And I'm sick and tired of that feeling. So I'm solving my own problem. I'm leaving the island to go to a professional woodworking university in London. It's only a year long thing, but I might stay there for good. Mallory, I can't keep expecting perfection from you, and it's hurting me too much to watch you do these things to me. I'm sorry." I was completely sprawled out on my floor crying my eyes out. I couldn't believe this was actually happening.

I could hear his feet making their way to the door, and I cried louder because I couldn't find my voice. The door opened, and I could see out of the corner of my eye that he turned back around.

"Give pictures of the baby to my dad. He'll send them to me. Good luck to you." The door shut and he was gone, and I was alone.

I shot up out of bed in a hot sweat, tears were running down my face, and I felt like I couldn't breathe. I looked around my house, it was empty. I looked outside, it was peaceful, no clouds, thunder or lightning. It wasn't raining. I wiped my face and felt sweat and tears come off on my fingers. It had been a dream. A terrible dream.

I regained the pieces of myself I had lost during the dream and simply sat on my bed in silence looking out the window. I took a deep breathe to myself. "I need to tell him the truth."


	28. Chapter 28

I couldn't wait until morning to tell him. I needed to go now, he needed to know now. Once I regained myself, I forced myself out of bed. I ran over and turned the lights on and got dressed. I knew he would probably be asleep, but I didn't care. I would wake him up if I needed to.

I quickly ran over to his house; quicker than I ever had. My heart was racing, I was so scared. I didn't know how he was going to react, and in a way, I didn't want to know. I had no idea how he was going to react to the news of my pregnancy, but I was scared that he would react to my lying like he had in my dream. I was terrified that he would leave me, I had royally fucked up this time, I didn't know if this would be the last time, and that scared me senseless.

When I got to his house it had started to snow slightly and the winds picked up a bit. I ran up to the front door and slammed on it has hard as I could. I heard no movement inside. I knew that both Dale and Luke were quite heavy sleepers, so if no one came that meant no one was awake. But I needed to see Luke. I jiggled the handle multiple times, it wouldn't budge. I sighed to myself. I backed away from the house some and looked up to the window that was Luke's room. In that second, a devilish smile spread across my face. There was a tree right next to his window. Now, I was never a very agile person, but by the looks of the tree, it seemed easy enough for a girl my size to clime.

I walked up to the tree and put my feet on the lower branches and tried to hoist myself up. Luke's bedroom window was on the second floor, though the window itself wasn't all that high. I figure if I can simply knock on the window loud enough, he would hear me. And I also figured if I fell down, the snow on the ground would break my fall; hopefully.

I grabbed the closest branches I could reach, and with each branch I grabbed onto, I hoisted myself up more and more. Eventually, after ten minutes of clumsy climbing, I was at the height of his window. Carefully, I reached my hand out, trying my hardest not to slip off the branch. I could just touch the window, though I didn't know if from where I sat I could gather enough power to knock hard without making myself fall over. I figured I would try anyway though, I had to try. I hung by my hand on one branch and pretty much dangled myself with my legs and butt still on one of the branches. I wasn't strong, so I didn't know how long I could hold myself like this, if I could hold myself like this at all. I reached out and knocked on the window fairly loud, and I thought I heard someone move around inside. Though just as I tried to bring myself back up from dangling, my feet and butt slipped off of the one branch they had been stable on, and I was completely dangling from the top of the tree. "Oh, this can't be good for the baby." I said to myself quietly.

I wanted to scream, but I didn't want to wake up the whole town either. In the back of my mind, I had it in my head to attempt to knock on his window again, but I almost knew that if I did, I would fall. Though, I guess there wasn't much I could do in this situation, so I tried my luck. I reached out my hand, slower than ever, and quietly knocked on the window once more. With the only hand I was holding on with, I nearly slipped, causing a scream to come out subconsciously. And with that, I knew I heard someone inside. Luke's window swung open, and from the corner of my eye, I could see his face was almost in shock. "Mallory?" He yelled confused.

"Oh, hey." I said way calmer than I actually was. He grabbed me and helped pull me inside. Once I was actually on solid ground again, I calmed myself. His room was dark so I knew he had been sleeping.

"So, should I ask or are you going to tell me?" He said with somewhat of a grin. He was sitting on his bed whereas I was seated on the ground. I looked up at him.

"I was just, you know, hanging around." I said with a bad pun, though he giggled. He got off of his bed and sad down beside me, and put his arm over my shoulder.

"Ok, wanna tell me the real reason now?" I looked at him, with hurt in my own eyes.

"I needed to talk to you."

"And it couldn't wait til morning?" I shook my head silently.

"No."I could slowly see the games and happiness fade from his expression.

"Mal, what's going on?" I turned away from his face. I couldn't handle seeing the pain in it.

"Luke, I'm really bad for you."

"What the hell are you talking about?" He said with some urgency in his voice.

"I keep hurting you. I can't bear to see you hurt because of me." He grabbed me and turned me in to face him.

"What are you talking about Mallory." I looked him straight in the face; I figured if I had to look at his pain, I would do it head on.

"I lied to you." His grip on me loosened. "About my pregnancy. I am pregnant." His face went blank, almost expressionless completely.

"Why..." His word trailed off as he lost his voice. He completely let go of me.

"I knew you didn't want a kid, and I just got scared. I didn't want to let you down."

"Mallory, you can't help it if you're pregnant or not. And either way, I'm sure I would have figured it out sooner or later, I mean you would have gotten bigger." His voice was suddenly really sweet and understanding.

"Wait, you're not upset I lied to you?" He sighed.

"I am. But I believe you lied to me for me." I stared at him dumbfounded. He smiled slightly. "What I mean is, you lied to me because you didn't want me to be unhappy. And even though you did lie, and it did hurt, you also came and told me the truth."

"So you don't hate me?" I asked quietly. He took my hands in his.

"There is not one thing on this earth that you can do to make me hate you. I will never hate you for as long as I live. I won't always be happy with you, but I'll never hate you. And I give you my life on that." I smiled.

"How in the world did I get so lucky to end up with someone as amazing as you?" He chuckled.

"I could say the same thing." I smiled so hard my face hurt. I bent in and kissed him. "Besides, I never said I didn't want a kid. I had just said not right now. But if right now is what's happening, I'm ok with that."

"Really?"

"As long as it's with you, really." He pulled me in and put his arm back around me. I leaned my head on his shoulder. "But, I have one condition." I lifted my head back up and looked at him.

"And what's that?"

"Marry me?" We both smiled at each other.

"Luke I-"

"Wait." He got up from where we sat on the floor and went over to his dresser and pulled something out. He lit a candle on his table to give light into the room. He extended his hand out at me, I took it and he pulled me up. But once I got up, he got down. On one knee.

"Mallory," I gasped and put my hand over my mouth slightly. When I was hanging on the tree outside his window, I had a lot of scenarios of how this night would end in my head. This was not one of them. "I love you with all of my heart. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want to raise a child and family with you. So what if we're young? We've got each other. I just want you, Mallory, and all of you. Mallory, my love, will you marry me?" He held out a little velvet box to me, and opened it. Inside was an amazingly gorgeous ring lined with diamonds and silver, with a huge diamond right in the center. I was so happy that I could barely speak.

"Yes, yes, yes!" I nearly screamed towards the end. He stood back up and slid the ring on my little finger. I hugged him tightly while he hugged back.

"Are you happy?" He asked when we released from our hug.

"Happy doesn't even begin to describe what I'm feeling." He kissed me for a long while, then slowly moved me over to his bed. We both sat down; our hands were interlocked together.

"Sleep with me?" I smiled, kissed him on the nose and laid down on his bed. He too laid down and draped his arm around me. Outside I could hear the snowstorm throw around the little beads of snow like beach balls over a fan. And though it was frightfully cold outside, I was safe and warm wrapped in the arms of my fiancee, my love, my Luke. And on my finger, I could feel the little diamond, the reminded me that I was the luckiest girl in the world.


End file.
